26 of the 27 Scientists Dismissing Lab-Leak Theory Have Ties to Wuhan Institute of Virology

The UK’s Daily Telegraph recently investigated the resurgent controversy as to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Two predominant explanations include 1) natural cause—that is some zoonotic animal-to-animal-to-human transmission or 2) the lab-leak theory. Early on, experts in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) cautioned Dr. Anthony Fauci that aspects of the new pathogen looked lab engineered. A frantic set of meetings occurred, and a unified message emanated thereafter—that the disease came from a natural zoonotic process like the last two coronaviruses. Yet concern was there from the start that the proximity of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the wet market where the pandemic supposedly started. Despite such suspicions, however, 27 prominent scientists wrote a letter published in the influential “The Lancet” medical journal unilaterally dismissing the lab-leak theory as did Fauci and the NIH leadership apparatus. From then on, any mention of lab leak theory on social media led to immediate censorship evidencing early on in the pandemic coordination between government and private technology companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Of course, most recently, the specter of a lab leak became a prominent discussion, and in fact, President Joe Biden ordered an investigation into the matter. Now thanks to the Daily Telegraph probe, it turns out that of the 27 scientists that collaborated on the letter outright dismissing any possibility that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, 26 of them actually have substantial links to Chinese researchers, colleagues or its benefactors at the Wuhan-based lab.


