Lab-Leak Theory Attracts New Attention As President Biden Calls For Closer Look at COVID-19’s Origin

Media conversations about the origin of COVID-19 intensified this week, after President Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to “redouble” efforts to determine whether the virus emerged through cross-species transmission or escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. In a highly publicized joint report in February, the World Health Organization and the Chinese government dismissed the lab-leak theory as “extremely unlikely.” But since then, more scientists are calling for new investigations, as a consensus forms that both scenarios are still viable. We’ll talk about the politics — and geopolitics–complicating the inquiry into the pandemic’s origins.