A majority of people, now including a slim majority of Democrats too, believe the coronavirus most likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory rather than from nature, a new poll shows, indicating a shift in public opinion since early in the pandemic as China continues to block a truly independent and thorough inquiry into COVID-19’s origins.
The new poll from Harvard University and Politico found that 52% of people in the United States, including 59% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats, believe the coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan lab, while just 28% of adults say COVID-19 began with an infected animal.
“Usually, our polls find a big split between Republicans and Democrats, so this is unique,” Bob Blendon, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who designed the poll, told Politico. “More conservative media have been carrying the ‘lab leak’ issue, and it’s been a Trump talking point from the beginning, so we expected people who lean Democratic would say either ‘It’s not true’ or ‘I don’t know.’ But the belief is bipartisan.”
TRUMP COVID-19 TESTING CZAR SAYS COVID-19 LIKELY EMERGED IN WUHAN LAB
The new poll, which surveyed 1,009 adults in late June and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, will be released next week. It also reportedly found that “almost two-thirds of Democrats and Republicans” called the issue of investigating COVID-19’s origin either “extremely” or “very” important.
Blendon suggested: “That the president thought there was enough evidence to ask intelligence agencies to put together a report sends a signal to Democrats that there might be something there.”
The U.S. intelligence community said at least one of its 18 agencies is leaning toward the lab leak hypothesis, and Biden ordered all of the spy agencies to “redouble” their investigative efforts in May, with a report due in August. Dr. Anthony Fauci laughed off the possibility of a lab leak last year, but he said this year that the lab leak hypothesis needed further investigation.
The new poll results mark a significant shift from polling in March 2020, where Pew Research said that 43% of adults, including 37% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats, said they believed SARS-CoV-2 came about naturally, while just 23% believed it was developed intentionally, and only 6% believed it was made accidentally in a lab in Wuhan, including 30% of Republicans who believed it was intentional and 8% accidental, with 16% believing it was intentional and just 5% accidental.
The U.S. and its allies are pinning their hopes for a second origins investigation in China on the WHO, despite the first team’s visit to Wuhan earlier this year being marred by Chinese government influence, lack of access, and conflicts of interest. The WHO-China study deemed the lab leak “extremely unlikely,” and meeting minutes with the Wuhan lab dismissed it as a “conspiracy theory.”
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A State Department fact sheet released in January contended Wuhan lab researchers “conducted experiments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar),” and the lab “has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses.” The fact sheet also asserted the lab “engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military” and that lab workers became sick with coronavirus-like symptoms in autumn 2019.
Former President Donald Trump, former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former COVID-19 testing czar Brett Giroir, and others have said they believe COVID-19 likely emerged from the Wuhan lab.
