The Search for Covid's Origins Is as Important as Ever

The possibility that the Covid pandemic started with a lab accident isn’t a conspiracy theory. Nor has science conclusively proven that it started in a Wuhan wet market. We simply don’t know — because China has set up numerous roadblocks to impede scientists’ ability to understand the origin of a pandemic that’s killed millions and shows no sign of ending.

Americans, however, have been channeling our outrage not at China’s evasiveness, but at each other for disagreeing on what conclusions to draw from the sparse and indirect data that China has made available. Even if there isn’t enough evidence to paint a definitive picture of Covid’s origin, though, there’s something to be learned by stepping away from the fray and looking at whatever clues we have.