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US COVID-origins hearing renews debate over lab-leak hypothesis

House Republicans kick off investigation into how the pandemic began, with witnesses who mostly favour a lab origin.
  1. Mariana Lenharo
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  2. Lauren Wolf
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The US House of Representatives held the first in a series of public hearings on 8 March aimed at exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic began. Members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic acknowledged that the question of where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus originated has become highly politicized. But they said that both hypotheses describing its emergence — one, that it spread naturally from animals to people; the other, that it leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China — must be explored. “This question is fundamental to helping us predict and prevent future pandemics, protecting our health and national security and preparing the United States for the future,” said committee chair Brad Wenstrup, Republican representative for Ohio, in his opening statement.

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Nature 615, 380-381 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00701-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 09 March 2023: An earlier version of this story contained a quote by Michael Worobey that didn’t accurately reflect his sentiment. It has been updated to indicate he was disappointed at the lack of scientific discussion and that he thinks evidence points to a natural origin.

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