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COVID-19 lab-leak theory debunked by Australian professor who has been dubbed ‘the virus hunter’

COVID-19 lab-leak theory debunked by Australian professor who has been dubbed 'the virus hunter'

Eddie Holmes can still remember the exact moment he first learned about COVID-19.

The University of Sydney virologist said it was New Years Eve, 2019, when he received a news alert that China had notified the World Health Organization of a strange new virus.

“It said four cases of an episode of pneumonia were found in a live animal market in Wuhan, China,” he said. “It immediately rang alarm bells.”

Professor Holmes told ABC News Daily the story jumped out because he had visited that very market, the Huanan seafood wholesale market, in 2014.

“While I was there, I noticed there were these live wildlife for sale, particularly raccoon dogs and… muskrats” he said.

“I took the photographs because I thought to myself: ‘God, that’s, that’s not quite right’.”

Animals caged in dirty, dark corner.
A photo taken in 2014 by Professor Eddie Holmes, showing animals caged in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.(Supplied: Eddie Holmes)

Raccoon dogs had been associated with the emergence of a different coronavirus outbreak, SARS-CoV-1, in 2002-04, which became known worldwide as the SARS virus.

Even in 2014, Professor Holmes believed the market could become a site of virus transmission between animals and humans.

“I said to my Chinese colleagues: ‘This is a really interesting situation here. We should do some sampling of the animal market to see what viruses these animals have got and if they’re going to jump,'” he said.

‘Engine room of disease emergence’

The monitoring that Professor Holmes suggested never took place but, in the early days of COVID-19, he was still convinced that a market like the one in Wuhan was the logical origin of the virus.

“They are the kind of engine room of [this sort] of disease emergence … because what you’re doing is you’re putting humans and wildlife in close proximity to each other,” he said.

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Australia

Kangaroo Island wildlife sanctuary rebounds from bushfires to create citizen science ocean tours

Kangaroo Island wildlife sanctuary rebounds from bushfires to create citizen science ocean tours

Is adventure tourism, with a science bent, the new way to attract travellers?

From tracking echidna poo, trapping mosquitoes, or counting face masks on beaches, citizen science is helping boost scientific records and data.

But it is not just for locals. A new style of tourism encourages people to involve themselves in landscapes and wildlife while visiting locations, rather than just taking in the sights.

In South Australia, Kangaroo Island is known for its unique and abundant wildlife.

But 25,000 koalas and 50,000 farm animals perished in the fatal Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020.

Two people also lost their lives.

Roanna Horbelt has been rescuing native orphaned animals at her Wildlife Land Trust Sanctuary for the past decade. She said the fires tested her mettle of her.

Woman smiling holding a kangaroo in a blanket, standing in a meadow.
Roanna Horbelt and rescued kangaroo Choco on Kangaroo Island, SA.(ABC Movin’ To The Country: Tony Hill)

“We were out in the fire grounds the whole time and you see horrible things, but we didn’t focus on that at all,” she said.

“I don’t have one picture. We focused on the positive things.

“We focused on the live animals, and we had about …150 to 200 kangaroos in the sanctuary at that stage, where it really was a sanctuary.”

Tourism that helps wildlife

Ms Horbelt and her partner, Phil Smith, saw an opportunity to give back to the animals not just through rehabilitation but through research and conservation.

They started an ocean tourism operation taking small group boat trips to the remote north-western coastline of Kangaroo Island to introduce people to the astounding diversity of animals, landscape, and geology.

Man with arm around woman, both smiling wearing matching t-shirts.
Roanna Horbelt and Phil Smith are partners in business and in life.(ABC Movin’ To The Country: Tony Hill)

The tourists, along with active citizen scientists, contribute to data monitoring and collection programs by taking photos, noting locations and animals, and making new discoveries.

Kangaroo Island Dolphin Watch coordinator Tony Bartram said, surprisingly, not much was known about dolphins.

“People think we know a lot, because dolphins are on T-shirts, in movies, on TV, all the rest, but they’re actually listed as data deficient,” he said.

“Getting baseline data about all species of dolphins is incredibly important.”

Mr Bartram said this area of ​​Kangaroo Island was the perfect place to conduct these tours.

Two women standing outdoors in a rural setting, leaning on a fence and smiling.
Halina Baczkowski meets Roanna Horbelt on Movin’ To The Country.(ABC Movin’ To The Country: Tony Hill)

“It’s not like being in Queensland. In South Australia, the marine environment is largely unexplored,” he said.

Mr Bartram had high hopes for the project.

“It’s important to us because it gives us a greater data flow, but also it means that we’re getting to places we haven’t been able to get to before,” he said.

“The limits on the research we’ve done so far are the limits on us and how far we travel, not on the dolphins.”

It’s not just dolphins tourists get to see. They have also spotted whales and ospreys previously not thought to inhabit the area.

Whale tale on display out of the ocean.
One of many stunning whale flukes captured off the coast of Kangaroo Island on Roanna’s tours.(ABC Movin’ To The Country: John Natoli)

Seeing a whale’s tail, known as a fluke, is the money shot. The unique markings help to identify the whale.

The more cameras the better, according to Ms Horbelt.

“The data they collect is vital. It’s not easy to get a fluke of a whale or a fin because the animals move very quickly,” she said.

‘Bloody hard work’ pays off

Another citizen scientist, Sue Holman, has documented ocean life around the island for eight years and was amazed at the data coming back from the tours.

“There are only seven recorded [osprey] nests around the island and they didn’t believe there were any up that end of the north coast at all, no nests,” she said.

“This is new data. This is cutting-edge stuff that we really want to show… there are nests up there that no-one knows about.”

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Categories
Australia

Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Dr Mary Woessner and Dr Aurelie Pankowiak pose for a photo on one of the basketball courts at Victoria University

Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.

The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.

Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.

One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.

The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.

A graph showing key statistics including that 82% of respondents experienced at least one type of violence
Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.

“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.

“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.

“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”

Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.

Dr Aurélie Pankowiak poses for a photo on one of the basketball courts at Victoria University
Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.

For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).

“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.

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Categories
Australia

Young adult researchers with Down syndrome hoping to change the narrative

Two women, a mother and daughter, both wear glasses and smile.

A new study of young adults with Down syndrome has found they often have high aspirations, usually grounded with a sense of realism.

“One of the things I loved seeing was this zest [for] life, the joy and enthusiasm in so many things,” University of Queensland Associate Professor Rhonda Faragher said.

“And a really important finding is that they don’t like to be treated differently. They don’t want to be singled out. They don’t want to be, perhaps, patronized.

“We know a good quality of life is not only possible. It’s common.”

The study ‘Stepping out in the world: the new adulthood for Gen Zs with Down syndrome’ involved interviews with 27 people around Australia as part of a National Disability Research Partnership grant.

“When I was growing up, there weren’t people with Down syndrome around — they were usually taken at birth to live in institutions, often with a short life span,” Dr Faragher explained.

“And we became intrigued by the idea that these young people who had left school were leading very different lives to what people had in the past.”

‘I feel proud’

Six women and two men stand together in a group.
Members of the research team Mia Johnston, Dr Rhonda Faragher, Alana Pettigrew, Bobby Pate, Ruth Faragher, Dr Jan Lloyd, Rebecca Flanagan and Michael Cox.(Supplied: University of Queensland)

The project employed four people with Down syndrome as research assistants who helped with the interviews and took part in the focus groups.

“We don’t do work on people with Down syndrome, we do it with and by,” Dr Faragher said.

Two adults with Down syndrome served on the project’s steering committee, Bobby Pate and Dr Faragher’s daughter, Ruth.

“I got involved in the research with my mum, basically because I’ve got Down syndrome, so I am really good at things,” Ruth Faragher explained.

Research assistant Mia Johnston says she feels like she’s achieved something.

“My family is proud and I feel proud for myself,” she said.

Study participant Catherine Mullany from Brisbane said she told the researchers she has a good life.

“I am 23 years old. I have a job at coffee roasters — and get paid,” she said.

“My dream is to keep my job, get gold medals for swimming, things like that… I love my dreams.”

‘We are people just like everyone else’

A man speaks on stage as four women and one man stand behind him.
Michael Cox and members of the research team present the findings at the University of Queensland.(Supplied: University of Queensland)

The project was carried out by the University of Queensland’s Down Syndrome Research Program, which began in the late 1970s and is believed to be the world’s oldest and longest study of people with the genetic condition.

Dr Faragher first made contact with the program after Ruth was born in 1996.

“I knew a little about Down syndrome, but not much,” she said.

One of the directors of the center at the time was Dr Anne Jobling.

“When I first met Rhonda, she was an anxious mother, and we had much data we could share about developmental progress that was contrary to the literature at that time,” Dr Jobling said.

Dr Faragher was a mathematics teacher when Ruth was born, but she later became an academic and eventually director of the Down Syndrome Research Project.

“What a lovely turn of the circle,” she said.

“Going from when I was receiving the information as a new mother, that came out of the research studies, to now being able to contribute to that work.”

Dr Jobling says stepping out into the adult world is still an enormous challenge for people with Down syndrome, but she’s seen a remarkable change in her lifetime.

“It is absolutely amazing to me that we have been able to come so far,” Dr Jobling said.

Speaking at the release of the Gen Z report at UQ, research assistant Michael Cox said it was a wonderful opportunity to spread an important message.

“We may have disability. We may have Down syndrome but people do forget that we are people just like everyone else,” he said.

Watch this story on 7.30 on ABC TV and ABC iview.

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Categories
Australia

Derek Abbott’s research into Somerton Man’s identity rules out link to wife Rachel Egan, but uncovers new coincidence

Sitting on Somerton Beach

A coincidental link between the Somerton Man and the professor who claims to have uncovered his identity has emerged, as previously held theories are debunked.

Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott has been working on the Somerton Man case — one of Australia’s longest-running mysteries — for decades.

Last week he announced DNA and forensic genealogy had unearthed the unidentified man found slumped on an Adelaide beach in December 1948 as Carl “Charles” Webb, a 43-year-old Victorian electrical engineer and instrument maker.

In making the breakthrough, Professor Abbott has also ruled out his own theory: that his wife was the man’s granddaughter.

Decades of research has created deeply personal links for Professor Abbott, who met his now wife, Rachel Egan, through his investigations.

a man and a woman stand holding hands in a graveyard. The woman is holding flowers
Rachel Egan and Derek Abbott at the grave of Somerton Man.(Australian Story: Ben Cheshire )

Professor Abbott wrote to Ms Egan, asking to meet after discovering she shared multiple links with the Somerton Man.

In addition to her biological grandmother’s phone number being found among the Somerton Man’s possessions, Professor Abbott also found her biological father shared two rare genetic anomalies with the man.

The pair quickly fell in love, married and went on to have three children.

But the link that brought them together has now been ruled out.

“We’ve also been able to now eliminate suspected possibilities in the past … including the one that my wife is related to the Somerton Man,” Professor Abbott told the ABC last week.

“[We] can totally rule that out now, her DNA does not match at all.”

The body of the unknown man found on the beach at Somerton.
The unknown man was found at an Adelaide beach in 1948.(Supplied: Derek Abbott)

But in a bizarre twist, another link between the family has been discovered.

Professor Abbott and Charles Webb share the same occupation of electrical engineers.

“That’s a coincidence, there’s lots of coincidences,” Professor Abbott said.

Typed writing in a column on a newspaper page
The public notice published in The Age newspaper on October 5, 1951. (Source: Trove)

In 1951, Mr Webb’s wife Dorothy Jean Webb put a public notice in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, publicizing that she had started divorce proceedings against her husband on the ground of “desertion”.

“Unless you enter an appearance in the Prothonotary’s Office of the Supreme Court of Melbourne on or before the 29th day of October, 1951 the case may proceed in your absence and you may be ordered to pay costs,” the ad states.

Their marriage certificate shows that Carl Webb and Dorothy Jean Robertson were married on October 4, 1941 at St Matthews in Prahran.

At the time, Mr Webb was 35 years old and his wife 21.

According to the certificate, the couple lived on Domain Road in South Yarra.

A small excavator in Adelaide's West Terrace cemetery.
An excavator in Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery works on the exhumation of the Somerton Man’s remains in May last year.(ABC News: Michael Clements)

Professor Abbott’s research into the case has been conducted separately from a police investigation, which included an exhumation last year with the Somerton Man’s remains taken from an Adelaide grave to a Forensic Science SA lab in the hope of harvesting DNA.

In a statement on Wednesday, SA Police said they were still “actively investigating” the coronial matter.

“We are heartened of the recent development in that case, and are cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough,” it said.

“We look forward to the outcome of further DNA work to confirm the identification which will ultimately be determined by the coroner.”

Professor Abbott said he will continue to “take an interest” in the case, as more questions needed to be answered about the man’s life and death.

“It’s not the end of the story by any means,” he said.

“Finding his name is really just the beginning of the story because now we’ve got to find out more about this man and his history and what he was doing and fill in all the gaps.”

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