Leaked Messages Reveal Scientists Who Denounced Covid Lab Leak Theory as Conspiracy Theory Secretly Knew it Was “Highly Likely”

Leaked messages reveal that a respected scientist who led the criticism of the Covid lab leak scenario thought it was “highly likely” in private, according to the Daily Mail.

Danish evolutionary biologist Dr. Kristian Andersen co-authored a now-famous research study that denounced the lab origin theory as a hoax and xenophobic in March 2020.

However, Slack conversations obtained by DailyMail.com reveal that Dr. Andersen told colleagues that the idea of a lab leak was “not some fringe theory” and was, in fact, “highly likely” the origin of the epidemic two weeks before the publication of that report.

Separate, publicly accessible correspondences between the virologist and his co-authors reveal how the group supported the natural origin theory—the idea that the virus spread from an animal to a human in the wild—for “political” reasons and feared that attributing the error to the Chinese lab would result in a “s***show” and jeopardize funding for virus manipulation research.

However, the scientists involved claim they changed their thoughts between sending the messages and producing the report. Critics contend that the letters demonstrate how the scientific community colluded to restrict debate over the causes of the epidemic.

On Tuesday, Dr. Andersen and the other researchers who contributed to the March 17, 2020 publication of the study titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” were summoned to testify before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee.

But only Dr. Andersen and his co-author, renowned microbiologist Dr. Robert Garry, who works at Tulane University in New Orleans, did it.

The newly uncovered contacts between researchers in early 2020 were used by House Republicans to grill the two doctors, who vehemently denied any cover-up.

Before the hearing, the government provided a report that included some of the texts in which the DailyMail.com was able to acquire, even more that were not included in the story.

The scientists’ efforts to investigate Covid’s origins were used by House Republicans as evidence that the scientists were brazenly stifling arguments for a more thorough investigation of the idea that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

In a message sent on February 2nd 2020, Dr Andersen said: 

“The main issue is that accidental escape is in fact highly likely – it’s not some fringe theory.”

“I absolutely agree that we can’t prove one way or the other, but we never will be able to – however, that doesn’t mean that by default the data is currently much more suggestive of a natural origin as opposed to e.g. passage. It’s not…”

In other messages, Dr. Andersen admitted he found it “strange” that Covid emerged in Wuhan, a city hundreds of miles from rural China where related coronaviruses circulate, despite labeling the lab leak theory a conspiracy.

He said: “Do we have any location information on the bat SARS-like viruses? … I believe RaTG13 is from Yunnan, which is about as far away from Wuhan as you can be and still be in China. What are the chances of finding viruses that are 96% identical given that distance? Seems strange given how many SARS-like viruses we have in bats.”

Prominent gain-of-function critic Professor Richard H. Ebright responded to the revelations on Twitter, noting that Dr. Andersen’s comments calling a lab leak scenario “highly likely” came after he had written the first draft of the ‘Proximal Origin’ paper denouncing the theory as a baseless conspiracy.

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SOURCES: DAILY MAIL, NATURE.COM, SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC