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Divisive COVID ‘lab leak’ debate prompts dire warnings from researchers

Allegations that COVID escaped from a Chinese lab make it harder for nations to collaborate on ending the pandemic — and fuel online bullying, some scientists say.
  1. Amy Maxmen
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Calls to investigate Chinese laboratories have reached a fever pitch in the United States, as Republican leaders allege that the coronavirus causing the pandemic was leaked from one, and as some scientists argue that this ‘lab leak’ hypothesis requires a thorough, independent inquiry. But for many researchers, the tone of the growing demands is unsettling. They say the volatility of the debate could thwart efforts to study the virus’s origins.

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Nature 594, 15-16 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01383-3

References

  1. Bloom, J. D. et al. Science 372, 694 (2021).

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  2. Wu, F. et al. Nature 579, 265–269 (2020).

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