COVID-19 origin theories: Was there a lab leak in Wuhan or the US?

A new report from Senate Republicans is yet again turning the spotlight on the origin of COVID-19.

A select subcommittee of the GOP this week released a report stating that the COVID-19 pandemic “was most likely the result of a research-related incident” in China.

The study, released by Senator Richard Burr, vowed to keep investigations going into the origins of COVID-19 as well as looking at officials who sought to ‘downplay’ the lab-leak hypothesis.

Let’s take a look at the different theories about the origins of COVID-19

Wuhan lab leak hypotheses

This, of course, is the origin theory in vogue in some quarters.

The GOP report points to some well-known facts to take aim at the ‘natural spillover’ theory, mainly the absence of an animal host being definitively identified more than two years into the pandemic, and China’s early missteps on containing the coronavirus.

The report also pointed to the fact that previous zoonotic outbreaks occurred at multiple locations, however, COVID-19 originated only in Wuhan, which happens to be home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“The hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy,” the 35-page report says.

“The available evidence appears to be inconsistent with both historic precedent and the scientific understanding of how natural zoonotic spillovers of respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2 occur,” the report states.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 represents “a significant break from the precedent of other zoonotic spillovers involving respiratory viruses, such as MERS and SARS,” the report adds.

Though it did note that reaching a definitive conclusion about the origins of the coronavirus is impossible without added evidence.

Meanwhile, the Republicans from the subcommittee also held an expert forum during which panellists said they thought the virus originated at the Wuhan laboratory.

However, others are placing the blame closer to home – Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, for example.

‘COVID came from US lab’

Sachs, who chaired the now disbanded COVID-19 commission at renowned medical journal The Lancet, told the Tehran Times, “The US government was sponsoring a lot of dangerous genetic manipulation of SARS-like viruses and has not yet honestly revealed the nature of that work.”

“There are worrying signs that this research may have created SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease,” Sachs added.

He added that the US tried to blame China without admitting its own possible role and that governments should cooperate with the WHO to find the truth.

“A lot of dangerous biological manipulation of pathogens is still going on. This kind of laboratory research needs to be made public and properly regulated. Bioweapons research needs to stop. We need global cooperation for this to happen,” Sachs added.

Sachs also noted that he does not believe COVID-19 emerged from bio warfare research –  a conclusion also made by US intelligence agencies.

It is important to note that many studies released this year have either pointed to the virus having natural origins or hedged their bets.

The lab leak scenario is “not motivated by scientific fact,” Gigi Gronvall, lead researcher and immunologist at The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, was quoted as saying.

Let’s take a look at two prominent examples:

Zoonotic hypothesis

This theory, which posits that COVID-19 spilled over from an animal to humans, remains the most popular among scientists.

Indeed, a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on 10 October by an expert panel, stated that COVID-19 ‘likely spread naturally’.

“Our paper recognises that there are different possible origins, but the evidence towards zoonosis is overwhelming,” co-author Danielle Anderson, a virologist at the University of Melbourne, told Science.Org.

The report further found that peer-reviewed literature remains overwhelmingly in favour of the zoonotic hypothesis.

The PNAS authors say their research revealed “considerable scientific peer-reviewed evidence” that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from bats, jumped to other wildlife, then to people in the wildlife trade, before finally resulting in an outbreak at Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market.

Interestingly, it was this panel was originally set up by The Lancet and disbanded by Sachs, who alleged conflict of interest and bias from its experts.

Sachs has claimed that the report does not “systematically address” the possible research-related origins of the pandemic and has accused the National Institutes of Health and “a small group of virologists” of a rush to judgment, as per Science.Org.

Meanwhile, The Lancet in September published a report giving equal weight to the lab leak and zoonotic hypotheses.

“The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown,” the report stated in its key findings.

“There are two leading hypotheses: that the virus emerged as a zoonotic spillover from wildlife or a farm animal, possibly through a wet market, in a location that is still undetermined; or that the virus emerged from a research-related incident, during the field collection of viruses or through a laboratory-associated escape,” the report noted.

It added that its commissioners held ‘diverse views’ about the relative probabilities of the two explanations, and that both possibilities require ‘further scientific investigation.’

With inputs from agencies

Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .