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Recently, the so-called lab-leak hypothesis has reared its head again. Injected back into the public conversation surrounding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea proposes that SARS-CoV-2 emerged (either unintentionally or intentionally) from virology research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) rather than from a zoonotic transmission event from an animal host to a human. The arc of the lab-leak hypothesis is long and complex, and in a June Vanity Fair article, journalist Katherine Eban covered the ins and outs of the story in great detail.
The Cliffs Notes of the serpentine story are essentially as follows: There was gain-of-function research involving coronaviruses going on at the WIV for years prior to the COVID-19 outbreak detected in Wuhan sometime in late 2019. Such research examines the infective capacity of viruses by endowing them with abilities in the lab beyond those that ...
