Covid Lab Origin Hypothesis Becoming Increasingly Popular

The theory that the virus causing COVID-19 had escaped from a research lab in Wuhan has recently been gaining additional traction. A number of experts and high-ranking figures have called for a more thorough investigation into the origins of the virus months after the conclusion of the WHO’s probe, deemed inadequate, which denied the lab escape theory.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal published a story covering previously undisclosed information from a US intelligence report recently made public. This report provides additional information about three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology who became ill around the time to which the origins of the spread of the virus is traced - November 2019. While previously available information noted the researchers’ symptoms as being “consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses,” the new information includes details such as the exact timing of the illnesses and the hospital visits the researchers made.

In mid-May, a group of 18 top scientists published a letter in the Science journal calling for a deeper investigation. Stipulating that “theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable,” the experts stated that “we must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimise the impact of conflicts of interest.” These specifications were a response to the WHO’s previous investigation, concluded in February, which claimed that the lab leak scenario was “extremely unlikely” despite limited access to evidence and seeming obstruction from China.

Immediately after the original WHO investigation was concluded, its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that all hypotheses were nevertheless still “on the table.” He did not believe the probe was “extensive enough,” adding that “further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.”

The US House Intelligence Committee released a report last week addressing the Covid origin issue. Noting that “international efforts to discover the true source of the virus … have been stymied by a lack of cooperation from the People’s Republic of China,” the Committee states that there is “significant circumstantial evidence” that the virus might have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab. The evidence cited includes:

The House Intelligence Committee report also implicates US government agencies and academic institutions in the research in question at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

As the New York Post notes, other prominent figures have joined the call for further investigations. Anthony Fauci and CDC chief Rochelle Walensky have both admitted that the lab leak hypothesis has not been ruled out. Speaking at an event hosted by PolitiFact in mid-May, Fauci stated he was “not convinced” that the virus had developed naturally.

When Fox News reported on Fauci’s remarks while pointing out that the chief medical advisor had repeatedly switched sides regarding a number of Covid-related questions, Twitter users were quick to add that over the last year, the policy of many social media platforms has been to ban or restrict the accounts of people who asserted that the virus had come from the Wuhan lab. Last year, the topic became partisan-political, with then-President Trump agreeing as early as April 2020 that there was a “high degree of certainty that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the virus.” Trump’s opponents, including many in the US media and large tech firms, then seemed to adopt the reverse position by implication.

In early May 2021, an extensive piece was published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reviewing the available evidence for both of the most likely theories of the origin of the virus. Admitting that all the evidence was still only circumstantial due to the Chinese government’s lack of transparency, in the review the author drew attention to geographical evidence, evidence related to the characteristics and qualities of the virus, and the records about the activities and research undertaken at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Much of the evidence reviewed in this article seems to have been reiterated in the recent House Intelligence Committee report cited above.

The information about the laboratory itself, its record, and broader biomedical research in China, which would support the conclusion that it would not be unlikely for a virus to have escaped it, has long been publicly available. Already in February 2020, a New York Post article made the case that contrary to China’s insistence, a theory positing a lab leak could be legitimate. In a suspicious move, after the epidemic had spread around China, the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology “released a new directive titled: ‘Instructions on strengthening biosecurity management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus.’” Among other similar observations, the article also cites China’s “history” of lab leaks, the original SARS virus being the prime example.