Debunking the Lab Leak Theory

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What Makes a Good Conspiracy Theory?

People create conspiracy theories to make sense of the unknown, reaching for a sense of control and trying to find someone or something to blame. Fear or uncertainty, lack of understanding, and pieces to connect are the key ingredients of a good, believable conspiracy theory such as this one. With times as uncertain as the early COVID days, any and all information will be spread quickly and often with inaccuracy. Everyone, whether they care to admit it, has shared information that may not be true without thinking sometimes. When people are searching for answers, they latch onto any information they can find - this often is where conspiracy theories start to snowball. Most good conspiracy theories, like the lab leak theory, are rooted in truth. It's hard to discern whether a theory just sounds plausible or if it's actually true.

When a new disease is being spread, a lot is unknown. It takes years or even decades to fully understand a disease. As more knowledge and information comes to light, how public health officials handle the situation shifts. We saw this through the evolution of COVID-19 guidelines and people's behavior. This evolution caused by new information can sometimes be perceived as officials "not knowing what they're doing" and can lead to public distrust.

Evidence Against a Lab Leak

The lab leak theory connected the dots between the lab in Wuhan, China and where the first cases emerged. While yes, the Wuhan Institute of Virology studied viruses, they did not engineer COVID-19. Earlier this month, nature published a news article about Shi Zhengli and her research at the institute. Zhengli has spent her career researching coronaviruses in bats and how they evolve to infect humans, leading her to get the nickname "China's bat woman". The nature article centered around her work with coronaviruses. Zhengli has adamantly stated that she had never worked with COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) or any close relatives to the virus. Recently, she sequenced all genomes of the coronavirus samples she worked with and released the data, concluding that none of them were closely related to COVID-19. These results prove that there were no bat derived sequences related to COVID present in the lab.

Many coronaviruses have been transmitted from animals to humans. The original coronavirus strain that first impacted human populations in 2002 and 2003 in Guangdong Province had a comparable origin to COVID-19 (both highly travelled areas in China and both thought to have originated in animals).

To address the proximity of Wuhan to the wet market where scientists predict is where the virus originated, Wuhan is a highly travelled area with multiple markets along the water which can contribute to the likelihood of zoonotic origin. The proximity of the two places (7.5 miles) is merely coincidence. Wuhan is a hotspot for the study of virology, which could be linked to the roots of this conspiracy theory.

Ultimately, the lab leak theory cannot definitively be condemned or proven, but it is highly unlikely based on the history of coronaviruses and the research from scientists who looked into the matter.

College Students on the Lab Leak Theory (Part Two of Three)

https://youtu.be/g_MJnkNfhTs