Theories of accidental release from a lab . . . remain viable,” they wrote.
The idea of a laboratory escape has polarised the community. A WHO investigation concluded it was “extremely unlikely”, arguing it was far more possible that it came naturally as “zoonotic spillover” from animals.
In February of last year, a group of scientists also backed this view. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin,” they wrote in a letter to The Lancet.
Virologists said yesterday that there was a “toxic” atmosphere around the subject, and that few who argued for the possibility of laboratory origins were willing to speak openly.
The 18 scientists of the latest letter include Marc Lipsitch, the Harvard epidemiologist, and Ravindra Gupta, the Cambridge geneticist who has played a key role in the UK’s response to variants. David Relman, the Stanford microbiologist who organised the letter, said it was in part a plea for more people to stand up.
“Many of us who signed this letter feel the same way, which is that we simply just don’t have enough information. Anyone who asserts a strong opinion one way or another can’t really be basing it on a whole lot of good data, because we just don’t have any,” he said.
He added that he was not surprised that the topic had become so fraught. “The fact is that this pandemic has caused so much pain, people feel angry, and they need to direct it at something,” he said.
“It’s sad that scientists have also joined this mode of engagement and seem to have forgotten why we are all in science.”
It was crucial for scientists across countries to find ways to investigate the origins of the pandemic with an open mind, he said, as many hypotheses remain credible.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting pre-pandemic research into coronaviruses, often in lower-biosecurity laboratories. “We know that laboratory accidents happen far more often than anyone would like to admit,” he said. “And that includes the very best labs, including those here in the United States.”
That Lancet letter from February last year, condemning the lab leak hypothesis as a "conspiracy theory", was signed by virologists like Peter Daszak who had professional links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, so it was hardly the opinion of disinterested scientists. Daszak was also, of course, a major player in the whitewash WHO report. And, as Nicholas Wade argued last week, those concerned to play down any talk of a lab leak include not only the Chinese authorities, but also those virologists unhappy to have too much light shed on the playing with fire involved in their irresponsible "gain-of-function" research.
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