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Matt Ridley

Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 Paperback – 23 Jun. 2022

by Alina Chan (Author), Matt Ridley (Author)

4.7 986 ratings

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Understanding how Covid-19 started is more important than we know for the future of humankind.

Determining whether the virus came from nature or from a lab will help us to safeguard against the next pandemic.

This disease will forever punctuate modern history. It has led to the deaths of millions, sickened hundreds of millions and affected the lives of almost every person on the planet. We now know that Covid is here to stay.

Genetic engineering expert Dr Alina Chan and renowned science writer Matt Ridley examine the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, using their formidable skills to scrutinise arguments and rigorously analyse the sprawling data. Viral is a fascinating account that takes in pangolins, horseshoe bats, internet sleuths and misleading scientific papers. It details the evidence and investigates hypotheses for the virus origin, chief among them a potential laboratory leak or a natural spillover.

Science has made great strides over the last decades. Chan and Ridley give an insight into the proliferating pathogen research and virus hunting around the world. Whatever the source of the virus, the world needs to adopt new policies and strategies to prevent or mitigate future outbreaks.

Set in the caves and mineshafts, food markets and wildlife smugglers’ stores, laboratories and databases of China and elsewhere, Viral is a page-turner that reads like a detective novel and goes deeper into the deepest mystery of the day than any other work.

This is the book on the search for the origin of Covid-19.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Fourth Estate
Publication date

23 Jun. 2022
Dimensions

12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

0008487537
ISBN-13

978-0008487539
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Product description

Review

‘The result is a viral whodunnit that is sure to appeal to armchair detectives’ Mark Honigsbaum, the Observer

‘The book collates a series of circumstantial but damning points in favour of the lab-leak hypothesis. It opens with a cloak-and-dagger scene of a BBC reporter trying to reach a mine in Mojiang, a rural area in southwest China… The book has dozens of tantalising facts … The book, fairly, does not conclude that the lab leak hypothesis is definitely true, merely that it is highly possible, and I agree… I hope the questions that Chan and Ridley raise are answered more fully, one way or another’ Tom Chivers, The Times

Praise for Dr Alina Chan:

‘Both journalists and armchair detectives interested in the mystery of the coronavirus were discovering Chan as a kind of Holmes to our Watson. She crunched information at twice our speed, zeroing in on small details we’d overlooked, and became a go-to for anyone looking for spin-free explications of the latest science on Covid-19’ Rowan Jacobsen, Boston Magazine

‘Here was an actual scientist at America’s biggest gene centre who was explaining why the official story might be wrong’ Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review

Praise for Matt Ridley:

‘What a superb writer he is, and he seems to get better and better' Richard Dawkins

‘[Genome is] a dazzling work of popular science, offering clarity and inspiration’ Guardian

‘[How Innovation Works] ranges from the truly profound to the merely fascinating’ Steven Pinker

About the Author

Dr. Alina Chan is the co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19. The book was co-written with Matt Ridley and published by HarperCollins UK and US on 16 November 2021.

Matt Ridley is a bestselling author. His books include Genome, The Rational Optimist and How Innovation Works, among others and collectively they have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (23 Jun. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008487537
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008487539
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 52,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 29 in Infectious & Contagious Diseases
- 31 in Microbiology (Books)
- 39 in Family & Lifestyle Infectious & Contagious Diseases

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4.7 986 ratings

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David S. Truman

Incisive and inciteful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2023

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The result of prodigious research of very high standards. Research carried out diligently and methodically undertaken. In spite of deliberate obstruction and obfuscation. It is a remarkable achievement and a fascinating insight into the reality of the origin of Covid-19. Not a very easy read but it is absolutely worth your time!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 March 2022

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One of the authors, Matt Ridley, I first heard on youtube; and after the second time around I then looked up this book, which he co-authored. The idea of the lab-leak origin has been around for a while, mooted by people such as Bret Weinstein , and notoriously publicised by Donald Trump, immediately thus discrediting the idea in the eyes of many.
The book goes carefully though the data, the theory, and the history of the trawl for data, in order to try to find out the story behind it. A strange, perhaps bizarre and even possibly sinister conclusion is that there is no conclusive evidence produced as to its origin; it remains unknown.
This is strange, even bizarre, because an enormous amount of energy has been expended at this question, and a lot of very well equipped minds and laboratories have endeavoured to find it, and so far, found nothing at all. It is sinister, because at every stage of meaningful links or evidences being found, the Chinese government systematically has destroyed evidences and data, obfuscated explanations, or forbade examination.
For these reasons; the destruction of data, and the forbidding of examination, and the disingenuous, obfuscation of facts and events, the research had to focus on the history of the data; the history of publication of papers, patents and discussions, which in their turn have alluded to those pertinent facts, now unavailable for examination.
What is telling is that up until 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology published research papers and patents in the normal way, alongside such collaboration and sharing of information and research ideas as would normal in the academic world. Then in 2019, not only does the lab go silent, but also the online database is suddenly and inexplicably taken offline in September. Only in November was COVID-19 formally diagnosed.
Another strange and possibly sinister aspect to this whole crisis has been the widespread censorship of debate, and the stultifying response from various individuals and agencies who should know better, most notably, the World Health Organization. It would appear that many around the world have been eager to collaborate with the Chinese government’s attempts to obscure the origin of Covid-19.
Time will tell whether anyone on Earth does in fact know the truth of this matter. Meanwhile, there is the greatest suspicion that the Chinese authorities perceived a problem before September of 2019, and have lied about it ever since.

8 people found this helpful

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ky

Xi’s Xenophobia Puts Humanity in Harms Way

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2022

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A very disappointing tale which Alina Chan & Matt Ridley tell masterfully. Their forensic attention to the detail makes this book a delight to read. I presume it will not be available in Chinese translation and on sale in all good bookshops from Canton to Beijing? And in that fact lies the soul of this story. Many Chinese citizens have shown how brave, honest, clever, and well meaning they are, doing the right thing, because it is the right thing to do. But an autocratic dictatorship does not change its spots whatever the century.
Dr Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance comes across as self serving and duplicitous. He has not acquitted himself well in this pandemic. I am surprised he has not been arrested and questioned for obstructing the investigation into the cause of so many deaths. Daszak’s lack of integrity and downright dishonesty would appear to have helped the CCP hide the truth. But he is not alone. Many Western scientist and journalists have shown a decided lack of judgment. Whatever happened to follow the data, follow the science?
Dr Fauci and the NIH, in funding gain-of-function projects at WIV, has shown a level of naivety completely inexplicable at his level of responsibility.
Daszak and Fauci’s actions have done little to prevent future pandemics and both have shown little evidence they understand that is their primary responsibility. It is why they were given public funds in the first place.
Many scientist in Holland, Spain, Canada, and France have done much to seek out the truth and Alina and Matt have done a brilliant job of putting the jigsaw together.
It’s a tragic tale of human deceit. That so many scientist and politicians do not feel driven to find out how and why so many died is a sad reflection on today’s world.
If you are interested in understanding what little the world does know about the pandemic, ‘Viral’ is the book to read.

11 people found this helpful

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PaulDirac

A balanced view

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2022

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Dr. Alina Chan is a virologist, she and Matt Ridley produced a blood chilling book about the emergence and origin of SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In many ways this is an attempt to take China to a court of public opinion for their obfuscation and attempts to hide the data concerning the origin of Covid-19.
A special narrative is given place to the WHO which proved to be ineffective in policing China, and several world famous western virologists who helped fund the Chinese Wuhan laboratories, including the extremely controversial Gain of Function research.
Why bother, you ask, it’s done and dusted.
In this field, like many others, we need to start being independent and critical even of “experts”, out of the 27 signatories of the letter proclaiming that this virus can’t be the product of a lab leak, it turns out 25 were in China’s pay.
The book is very readable but has extensive key viral biology explained in plain language, great job guys.

3 people found this helpful

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hayekuk

Brilliant must-read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2023

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All of 2020, anyone suggesting that perhaps a Chinese lab was the origin of Covid, was called a conspiracy theorist, racist, a loon and a hater. People were banned and shadow-banned from social media for suggesting it; ‘fake news’ plastered all over their posts, health warnings attached. Until Biden ordered an investigation. One year later, a lab is thought to have been the birthplace of Covid. Author Matt Ridley was one of the first to see through the hysteria. He chose the scientific method of questioning and rebuttal to the dogmatic consensus blindness some trued to impose. Five stars, all the way.

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