Lab-Leak Theory

The COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis proposes that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory developed from the circumstantial evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is close in proximity to the pandemic's early outbreak in Hubei, China, and suspicions about the secretiveness of the Chinese government's response to the pandemic. Scientists from the WIV were known to have collected SARS-like coronaviruses, and the allegation that the institute performed undisclosed risky work on such viruses is central to some versions of the theory. Some versions are based on speculation, misinformation, or misrepresentations of scientific evidence. The idea that the virus was released from a laboratory, either accidentally or deliberately, appeared early in the pandemic.

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