Bret Weinstein on science: what the evidence says · JRE #2198
SUBJECT: SCIENCE
The short answer
Weinstein states that Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher Shi Zhengli was 'trained by' American virologist Ralph Baric. Shi Zhengli earned her Ph.D. at the University of Montpellier II in France in 2000 and had worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology since 1990, independently of Ralph Baric.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
the head of the Wuhan Institute laboratory in question, Xi Zhengli, was trained by Ralph Baric, right? So this is a partnership on dual-use research that doesn't seem to make any sense given
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Shi Zhengli earned her Ph.D. at the University of Montpellier II in France in 2000 and had worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology since 1990, independently of Ralph Baric. Her research career as a bat-coronavirus specialist was already established before any collaboration with Baric's UNC lab began, including a 2005 Science paper (with Peter Daszak and others) showing bats harbor SARS-related coronaviruses. The 2015 Nature Medicine chimeric-virus study most often cited in discussions of Baric-Shi 'dual-use research' lists Shi as a co-author alongside Baric, with her team credited for isolating and sequencing the bat virus SHC014 and Baric's team performing the reverse-genetics and mouse-infection work at UNC. This reflects a collaboration between two independently trained, senior researchers each contributing separate expertise, not a mentor-trainee relationship. Describing Shi as having been 'trained by' Baric overstates and mischaracterizes the nature of their scientific partnership.