NYT Opinion: Overwhelming Evidence for SARS-CoV-2 Lab-Leak

In this article by Alina Chan, PhD, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, Dr. Chan gives compelling evidence supporting the SARS-CoV-2 lab-leak hypothesis. She describes with clarity the five characteristics that lead to the unavoidable conclusion that the virus that causes Covid-19 likely originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology: genetic features like the furin cleavage site not found in natural coronaviruses, the virus’s early spread in Wuhan coinciding with the institute’s location, the absence of intermediate animal hosts at the Huanan Seafood Market, the lab’s risky research on SARS-like viruses under low biosafety conditions, and the suspicious illness among Wuhan lab researchers before the pandemic’s outbreak. These factors suggest a possible accidental release from the institute rather than a natural origin from wildlife.