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COVID Origin Controversy—Wuhan Lab Leak or Something Else?

WHO scientist break down the 'lab leak' theory about the COVID 19 virus. Here's what the group of scientist concluded from their 12 day investigation in Wuhan.

By Vaishnavi Shetye
WHO decided to dig deep into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been largely speculated about. In 2023, a widely spread conspiracy theory claimed that the virus spread after it leaked from a Chinese laboratory. The theory took the world by storm and antagonized China in the eyes of the world. The famous conspiracy theory implied that the pandemic that affected people all over the world was created in a lab. Theorists claimed that a team of scientists in the city of Wuhan, located in China, was the reason the virus “escaped.” Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) have dedicated 10 years of their research to studying coronaviruses in bats. The people who believed in the conspiracy theory noted the close proximity of the Huanan, where the virus was first detected, and the WIV. The Hunan market and the lab are located 40 minutes away by drive. BBC reported that the virus that spread was likely an “unaltered virus” that was “collected from the wild” and not “engineered” in a lab. Donald Trump, who was serving as the President of the United States, also backed the theory up. Several people also alleged that the virus could have been a calculated move that was used as a “biological weapon.” The speculation picked up after a US Intelligence report revealed that three researchers from the Wuhan laboratory were admitted to the hospital in 2019. Soon after, several cases of the COVID-19 virus were found in the city. Donald Trump’s administration set up an investigation to look into the matter while he was in office. Joe Biden’s Chief of Medical staff urged a full investigation when the Biden administration took over. "That possibility certainly exists, and I am totally in favour of a full investigation of whether that could have happened," Anthony Fauci had said. Biden later revealed that he had demanded a full report about the virus to determine “whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident." Joe Biden eventually shut down the state department investigation when he took over. While the internet and media went rampant with theories, the World Health Organization sent a team of scientists to Wuhan to investigate the matter. The team of scientists spent 12 days in Wuhan in the early months of 2021. At the end of their investigation, they confirmed that the lab-leak theory to be true was “extremely unlikely.” But the world and pioneers in the field of science weren’t fully convinced of what the scientists from WHO had deduced. "We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data,” a Science Magazine article wrote. WHO's Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also demanded another investigation. "All hypotheses remain open and require further study,” Ghebreyesus concluded. Biden’s Chief of Medical staff, Dr Fauci, also expressed his skepticism. The doctor spoke about how he is "not convinced" that the virus originated in the wild. China defended itself from the claims strongly while noting that all the theories flying around were a part of a smear campaign. China's foreign ministry spokesperson joined the debate with strong claims and accusations. Mao Ning told a group of reporters that the US Intelligence community was tainted by a history of “misdeeds” and often resorted to "fraud and deception.” The Chinese threw another theory into the pool of theories that had been going around. They claimed that the virus could have entered Wuhan through food shipments that were brought in from elsewhere in China or South-East Asia.

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