The Origin of the Virus

The beauty of this book lies in its totally convincing narrative in a concise and entirely readable form. As a lay person with regard to medical matters I found the introductory chapter by the man who put the project together, Paolo Barnard, both fascinating and compelling, reading like a particularly enthralling story. Then the science kicks in with some hard academic research from Professor Dalgleish examining the genome of the virus and the peculiar nature of the spike proteins put there by Gain of Function studies of concern. Although impeccable in its reasoning the matters were explained in terms that are fully understandable. Then follows a nice cheeky chapter from doctor/scientist Steven Quay at the end of the book which lays out in a wonderfully logical manner how a bookie might view the odds of either zoonosis or lab-leak as the origin of the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic .... an analysis supported by something called Bayesian statistics. I have read other books on the same matter but in my opinion this is the best .... the rival tomes are too large, filled out by journalese or just plain wrong. Once you realise that the virus has been made in a unique way such that it can attack almost any cell in the human body you begin to understand the importance of preventative measures and also become angry that the dangerous Gain of Function studies are continuing and worried that unless they are stopped the next pandemic of a novel virus will be even worse. Anthony Lloyd, primary schoolteacher and musician in Bristol, England (Review in Caduceus)