The COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis, is the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, escaped from a laboratory. Most scientists believe the virus spilled into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history. Available evidence suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was originally harbored by bats, and spread to humans multiple times from infected wild animals at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan in December 2019.There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 existed in any laboratory prior to the pandemic. An original animal reservoir has not yet been confirmed, though several candidate species have been identified. Central to the idea of a Chinese leak is the misconception that it is distinctively suspicious that an outbreak should happen to occur in a city with a virology institute (the Wuhan Institute of Virology) nearby; most large Chinese cities have similar institutes. The idea of a leak there also gained support due to suspicions about the secrecy of the Chinese government's response and has also been informed by racist undercurrents. Scientists from WIV had previously collected SARS-related coronaviruses from bats; allegations that they also performed undisclosed risky work on such viruses is central to some versions of the idea. Another version of the idea posits an American laboratory origin. Some versions, particularly those alleging genome engineering, are based on misinformation or misrepresentations of scientific evidence.The idea that the virus was released from a laboratory (accidentally or deliberately) appeared early in the pandemic. The theory gained popularity in the United States through promotion by conservative figures including president Donald Trump and other Republicans in the spring of 2020, fomenting tensions between the U.S. and China. At the time, politicians and media outlets widely dismissed it as a conspiracy theory. The accidental lab leak idea had a resurgence in 2021. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report which deemed the possibility "extremely unlikely". Director-General Tedros said the report's conclusions were not definitive and data had been withheld from the WHO team. In June 2021, the WHO announced plans for laboratory audits, which China rejected.In October 2021, the U.S. Intelligence Community released a report assessing that the Chinese government had no foreknowledge of the outbreak and the virus was likely not engineered. The report did not conclusively favor any origin scenario. Of eight assembled teams, one (the FBI) leaned towards a lab leak (with moderate confidence), four others and the National Intelligence Council leaned towards zoonosis (with low confidence), and three were inconclusive. In May 2021, British intelligence agencies said a Chinese lab leak was "feasible". A July 2021 Politico-Harvard poll found 52 percent of Americans believe COVID-19 leaked from a lab (including 59 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats), compared to 28 percent that believe COVID-19 resulted from human contact with an infected animal.Most scientists have remained skeptical of the idea, citing a lack of supporting evidence, while a minority regard both a lab leak and natural origin as equally valid. Some scientists agree a lab leak origin should be examined as part of ongoing investigations, though they have expressed concerns about politicization. In July 2022, two papers published in the journal Science described new epidemiological and genetic evidence that the pandemic likely began at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market and did not come from a laboratory. The new evidence led a co-author of the papers, Edward C. Holmes, to declare that "The siren has definitely sounded on the lab leak theory."
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