Covid-19 origin debate: Rare genome sequencing need not mean lab origin

Understanding the origin of a viral outbreak can provide scientists with important information about viral lineages and allow steps to be put in place to avoid similar outbreaks in the future.

The theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was triggered by the Sars-CoV-2 virus being leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China was recently given new life following an explosive article in the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) in which the authors claimed “the most compelling reason to favour the lab leak hypothesis is firmly based in science”. But does the science really support the claim that the virus was engineered in a laboratory?

Understanding the origin of a viral outbreak can provide scientists with important information about viral lineages and allow steps to be put in place to avoid