From the start of the covid pandemic to the present day, Legal Insurrection has been monitoring developments in the investigation of the origins of the novel coronavirus known as the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
I started in February 2020, when I noted that Chinese university researchers believed the virus might originate from a government laboratory in Wuhan.
Other sign-posts on the road to reaching this sensible conclusion are:
The saga continues, as a top Chinese government scientist says the possibility that the covid virus leaked from a laboratory should not be ruled out.
As head of China’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Prof George Gao played a key role in the pandemic response and efforts to trace its origins.China’s government dismisses any suggestion the disease may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory.But Prof Gao is less forthright.In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 podcast Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin, Prof Gao says: “You can always suspect anything. That’s science. Don’t rule out anything.”A world-leading virologist and immunologist, Prof Gao is now vice-president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China after retiring from the CDC last year.
Gao indicated that a formal investigation into the theory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was completed, suggesting Chinese officials did take the idea more seriously than it let on.
“The government organized something,” Gao said, adding that it did not involve his previous department.He said he hasn’t seen the results of the investigation but has “heard” that the lab was cleared.”I think their conclusion is that they are following all the protocols,” he said. “They haven’t found [any] wrongdoing.”The lab-leak theory has gained traction in the U.S., with the Energy Department and the FBI supporting the idea. But four other agencies and a national intelligence panel said they believe the pandemic likely started with natural transmission from animal to human.
Unfortunately, some media outlets continue to insinuate that a lab leak was the potential origin of the pandemic is a fringe theory. For example, Politico:
One of the running hypotheses — which started as a fringe conspiracy touted by former U.S. President Donald Trump — is that the virus was leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
In a piece discussing the US Energy Department’s assessment that a lab leak was the most likely source of covid, Professor Jacobson noted:
The evidence is not conclusive because there has been a three-year cover-up by the Chinese government. The proof to a reasonable degree of certainly may never be found because it’s been destroyed.
Yet, this is an intriguing trial balloon that suggests more information may be revealed that the Chinese may want to get ahead of. Stay tuned!
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