Viral Posts, Pundits Distort Fauci Emails

The exact origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, remains unknown. The scientific consensus has been that the virus likely occurred naturally and developed in bats before transferring to humans, either directly or through another animal. But scientists say more investigation is needed, including into theories that there could have been an accidental laboratory leak, either of a naturally occurring virus or a lab-enhanced one. 

The virus is indeed similar to bat coronaviruses. The World Health Organization explains that SARS-CoV-2 is “closely related genetically to coronaviruses isolated from bat populations.” Researchers in China have said the virus shares 96% of its genome with a bat virus.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, typically an animal coronavirus doesn’t infect people, but this transfer from animals to humans — called zoonotic transfer — occurred with two other coronavirus outbreaks, SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2012.

An article published in Nature Medicine in March 2020 found that SARS-CoV-2 “is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” The authors, who analyzed genomic data, said that the virus likely originated through “natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer,” or “natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.”

The authors said an accidental laboratory release of the naturally occurring virus can’t be ruled out, but they “do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”

But on May 14, 2021, the journal Science published a letter from 18 scientists calling for “more investigation” to determine the pandemic’s origin. “Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable,” they wrote. “Knowing how COVID-19 emerged is critical for informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks.”

The earliest known human cases of the disease occurred in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. Chinese officials reported an outbreak of mysterious pneumonia cases to the WHO on Dec. 31, 2019.

Updated, May 21: We updated this item to add that some scientists say more investigation is needed into the origin. 

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