I came across this article “Genetic tracing of market wildlife and viruses at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.” (link)
There are three at least issues with claims made:
- Genetic virus tracing cannot be done because a virus has not been isolated and characterized. Therefore, the gene cannot be established or traced. The publication makes a false claim about the virus.
- The virus cartoon in the abstract’s top left corner cannot be true because no sample of the isolated virus is currently available.
As per the publication, “This study did not generate new unique reagents, but processed data generated for this study can be found in the supplementary files, and reconstructed genomes and phylogenies can be found at the data and code repository associated with this work.” No experimental work was done. But, computer-generated codes/” sequences” were used. Therefore, work was not done with the virus but with computing. (False claim about working with the virus) - The publication authors and institutions are related to medical and biological areas/subjects, not science, as commonly understood or implied. The publication may be understood as a science publication, which is incorrect. (link)
Therefore, I stamped it as certified BS’ (link)