To The Health Report, Australian Broadcasting Commission
A quick response, sent April 26, 2025 (Australian time) to the ABC. Minimally edited. In relation to their report broadcast the same day, available at https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/healthreport/ai-measles-cancer-psa/105144572 - listen at about the 4 minute mark.
This is my 3rd or 4th letter to The Health Report about this topic, none of which were acknowledged. I also formally complained to the ABC about its bias in 2023 (e.g. see https://globalchangemusings.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-australian-broadcasting-commission.html). That was replied to, but led nowhere.
It's very encouraging that Dr Norman Swan is now conceding there is a chance the pandemic was from a lab. You mentioned Prof David Relman in support (of the lab origin possibility), without disclosing he published on this in November 2020 (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2021133117); you also mentioned that Nobel Laureate David Baltimore was worried; this was reported about in 2021, if not earlier (e.g. https://thebulletin.org/2021/06/caltechs-david-baltimore-discusses-the-debate-over-origins-of-sars-cov-2/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter06242021&utm_content=DisruptiveTechnologies_Baltimore_06232021).
You should also have mentioned that Peter Daszak and his organisation were "debarred" by the US govt. - for their dishonesty and incompetence (concluded by a bipartisan committee) e.g. https://oversight.house.gov/release/breaking-hhs-formally-debars-ecohealth-alliance-dr-peter-daszak-after-covid-select-reveals-pandemic-era-wrongdoing/
In 2022 UNEP tried to censor the report they commissioned me in 2020 to write, into the cause of the pandemic, even though it had about 30 reviewers (e.g. see https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11687597/There-suppression-truth-secrecy-cover-ups-origin-Covid-19-China.html).
I am currently working on an invited 8,000 word paper reviewing how the "pandemic from a wild zoonosis is about to emerge" story became a frenzy - seemingly corroborated by SARS-2. The same people who inflamed this pandemic fear may have inadvertently caused it. The definition of a “pandemic” is subjective, but using a rigorous definition, the only recent such example (other, putatively, SARS-Co-V-2) is HIV/AIDs.
Even that is of uncertain cause (e.g. see https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/maq.12587). Finally, I refer you to the French Academy of Medicine 's conclusion it was likely a lab accident (https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/french-academy-of-medicine-covid-19-likely-result-of-lab-accident/) and my letter calling for Calisher et al to be retracted: https://publichealth.realclearjournals.org/perspectives/2025/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-scientific-journals-and-a-way-forward/reader-comments/
I sincerely appeal for you (and any research assistants that you may have) to be more forensic and thoughtful.
Sincerely,
Colin
Colin D. Butler PhD, MSc, BMed, DTM&H
Honorary Professor, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health and Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/colin-butler
