New research on the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak puts another nail in the lab leak theory’s coffin. That theory claims the virus was either created in or studied at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and then it either escaped accidentally or was released intentionally.
The new study shows that the virus’s path across China to Wuhan resembles that of the earlier SARS epidemic that started in 2002, in terms of time, distance, and route, they report in the journal Cell. Demonstrating its origins and route of travel essentially disputes that the virus appeared out of nowhere in Wuhan.
“The various iterations of the lab-leak theory all assume that there is something different and inexplicable about the emergence of COVID-19 compared with the emergence SARS,” says Joel Wertheim, a professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and an author of the paper, says. “There is nothing ...
