Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:23, 24 November 2021

Alina Chan is a Canadian molecular biologist specializing in gene therapy and cell engineering at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she is a Postdoctoral Fellow. During the COVID-19 pandemic she became known for questioning the prevailing consensus regarding the origins of the virus, and arguing that a laboratory escape scenario should be investigated.

Biography

Chan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Singaporean parents. Her family returned to Singapore shortly after, where she grew up. She returned to Canada after high school, where she studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia, where she earned a PhD. She later joined Harvard university as a postdoctoral scholar and later the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute.

COVID-19 origins

Chan became known during the COVID-19 pandemic for co-authoring preprints and op-eds suggesting COVID-19 could have escaped from a laboratory. Chan wrote opinion pieces on the subject with Matt Ridley in the Wall Street Journal and in The Daily Telegraph. Chan later signed open letters together with other scientists published in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, calling for full and unrestricted international forensic investigations into all possible origins of the virus. Chan was one of 18 scientists who signed a letter in Science Magazine calling again for a credible investigation into the origins of the virus. The letter called for a "proper investigation" into "both natural and laboratory spillovers" and was widely covered in the press and brought the debate on the possible lab origins of the virus into the mainstream.

Chan and Matt Ridley authored a book entitled Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, published by HarperCollins in November 2021.

Chan participated in a debate on Covid origins organized by Science magazine, which included Linfa Wang, Michael Worobey and Jesse Bloom.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).</ref>

References

1. ^ Rabin, Roni Caryn (24 August 2021). "Caught in the Crossfire over Covid's Origins". The New York Times.
2. ^ Regalado, Antonio (25 June 2021). "They called it a conspiracy theory. But Alina Chan tweeted life into the idea that the virus came from a lab". MIT Technology Review.
3. Jacobsen, Rowan (9 September 2020). "Could COVID-19 Have Escaped from a Lab?". Boston Magazine.
4. Harris, Mary (13 April 2021). "A Different Theory of COVID-19's Origin". Slate Magazine.
5. Regalado, Antonio. "They called it a conspiracy theory. But Alina Chan tweeted life into the idea that the virus came from a lab". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
6. Harris, Mary (13 April 2021). "A Different Theory of COVID-19's Origin". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
7. Chan, Alina; Ridley, Matt (January 15, 2021). "The World Needs a Real Investigation Into the Origins of Covid-19". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
8. Ridley, Matt; Chan, Alina (February 6, 2021). "Did the Covid-19 virus really escape from a Wuhan lab?". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
9. https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/COVID%20OPEN%20LETTER%20FINAL%20030421%20(1).pdf
10. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/virus-inquiries-pandemic-origins/d7a097a4c758a65a/full.pdf
11. Bloom, Jesse D.; Chan, Yujia Alina; Baric, Ralph S.; Bjorkman, Pamela J.; Cobey, Sarah; Deverman, Benjamin E.; Fisman, David N.; Gupta, Ravindra; Iwasaki, Akiko; Lipsitch, Marc; Medzhitov, Ruslan; Neher, Richard A.; Nielsen, Rasmus; Patterson, Nick; Stearns, Tim; Nimwegen, Erik van; Worobey, Michael; Relman, David A. (May 14, 2021). "Investigate the origins of COVID-19". Science. 372 (6543): 694. Bibcode:2021Sci...372..694B. doi:10.1126/science.abj0016. PMID 33986172. S2CID 234487267 – via science.sciencemag.org.
12. Whipple, Tom (27 May 2021). "Could a lab leak really be to blame for Covid-19?". The Australian. Archived from the original on 2021-06-18.
13. Palus, Shannon (May 29, 2021). "Just Because We're Talking About the Lab Leak Theory Doesn't Mean It's Come True". Slate Magazine.
14. "Many Scientists Still Think The Coronavirus Came From Nature". NPR.org.
15. "The science around the lab leak theory hasn't changed. But here's why some scientists have". NBC News.
16. Barnes, Adam (June 17, 2021). "Harvard scientist says Trump hatred motivated experts who denied Wuhan lab leak theory". The Hill.
17. "How It Started, How It's Going". On the Media. WNYC Studios. May 21, 2021.
18. Honigsbaum, Mark (2021-11-15). "Viral by Alina Chan and Matt Ridley review – was Covid-19 really made in China?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-11-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
19. Hiltzik, Michael (2021-11-15). "These authors wanted to push the COVID-19 lab-leak theory. Instead they exposed its weaknesses". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-11-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
20. https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-mysterious-case-of-the-covid-19-lab-leak-theory

• Living people
• Canadian molecular biologists
• Canadian women biologists
• Women molecular biologists
• 21st-century Canadian women scientists
• University of British Columbia alumni
• 21st-century Canadian biologists