TWO POSSIBLE theories broadly explain the origin of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 3 million people. The first is the long-observed pathway of zoonotic spillover, in which a pathogen leaps from animal to human. The second is that a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was carrying out risky experiments with bat coronaviruses and could have suffered an accident or leak. Neither theory has proof, but as 18 prominent scientists caution, “both remain viable.” The world needs to know.
In a letter published in the journal Science last week, the scientists insist that “greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve.” The signers included Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is an expert on coronaviruses and pioneered techniques for manipulating them that were eventually used by the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The letter was organized by David Relman of Stanford University and Jesse Bloom of the University of Washington and endorsed by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee. The letter notes the lopsided deficiencies in an earlier World Health Organization-China investigation, and calls for a “proper investigation” that would be “transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest.”
