A month ago, the pseudonymous Working Group did an independent research project on the coronavirus outbreak in Japan. Our result was novel and concerning. We quietly circulated it to accelerate the response effort.

Here's the research and the backstory:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2020/04/21/japan-coronavirus/
We published a hash of our white paper on Twitter on March 25th, 2020. https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1242670345737256962
Three days prior to that, on March 22nd, I was sufficiently convinced that there was an unacknowledged geographically distributed coronavirus outbreak to pre-register that conclusion.

The Working Group came together and began work on March 23rd. https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1241551327743770624
I've explained the idiom of dropping a hash on Twitter here for the benefit of folks for whom this is new:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/essays/dropping-hashes/
We opted to work pseudonymously a month ago to avoid negative impact on the containment efforts or on our team.

I am coming forward because the work was early and correct enough to inform responses, and we think our methods may accelerate future efforts here and elsewhere.
I would like to thank my co-authors, those who helped us arrive at this result, and the researchers, journalists, engineers, and others without whom it would have been impossible.

We hope to have been of some small service.
The situation remains extremely fluid and concerning.

There are still potential social consequences to those close to this effort and people they are responsible for.

I am coming forward, in a cautious manner, for reasons described in the above essay.
I may not be in a position to elaborate further on this topic. Please see the essay.
You can follow @patio11.
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