By Halley Posner, June 10, 2021
Watch the Bulletin virtual program, “The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?” featuring Nicholas Wade and John Mecklin with Rachel Bronson.
In this conversation, you will hear about how the article sharing the program name came to be and why it sparked renewed investigations of a possible lab leak.
Read more Bulletin coverage of COVID-19 and listen to all of our virtual programs.
Nicholas Wade is a science writer, editor, and author who has worked on the staff of Nature, Science, and, for many years, the New York Times. He is the author of the groundbreaking article, “The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?”
John Mecklin is the editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune (subsequently renamed Pacific Standard), an award-winning national magazine that focused on research-based solutions to major policy problems.
Rachel Bronson is the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. She oversees the publishing programs, management of the Doomsday Clock, and a growing set of activities around nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. Before joining the Bulletin, Bronson served as the vice president of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
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The origin of the virus is human even if it did not leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, for the simple reason that zoonotic diseases spread as a result of unrelenting human encroachment into wild territory.
I'm not a virologist or medical expert. I read the Wade article; it seemed to raise important questions. I asked friends who are medical researchers to explain more about these issues to me, and have been persuaded anew that a natural origin remains by far more likely than a lab leak. I am somewhat dismayed that the Bulletin is giving far more weight to what remains essentially speculation than I would have expected from an institution with your reputation. The credibility of this discussion would have been greatly enhanced by including a couple of virologists. For those who are interested in the views of those who understand these issues fully, it's worth listening to this podcast of This Week in Virology.