In an August 19 report about former Fauci adviser David Morens pleading guilty to conspiring to conceal government records, NPR returned to another controversy surrounding the pandemic: where COVID-19 came from.
The report says there is “no proof” that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a laboratory and presents natural animal-to-human transmission as the explanation supported by the “scientific consensus.”
It is certainly fair to say that a laboratory origin has not been proved conclusively. But neither has a natural origin. Presenting one hypothesis principally through its lack of definitive proof while describing the other as the consensus risks giving readers a misleading impression about a question that remains unresolved.
Even the World Health Organization is more cautious.
In June 2025, WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens concluded that the weight of the scientific evidence available to it favored zoonotic spillover (lab leak). But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus simultaneously stressed that crucial information remains unavailable and explicitly said that “all hypotheses must remain on the table,” including a laboratory leak. China still had not provided WHO with requested early viral sequences, detailed information about animals at the Wuhan market, or information concerning work and biosafety conditions at Wuhan laboratories.
That hardly amounts to a closed case.
The U.S. intelligence community has also been divided. The FBI and Department of Energy have assessed a laboratory-associated incident as the most likely origin, while other agencies have favored natural exposure. In January 2025, the CIA joined those leaning toward a research-related origin, although it did so with “low confidence.”
That caution becomes especially important in a story about a former senior government scientist admitting that he conspired to evade federal transparency requirements concerning COVID-related records. Morens pleaded guilty after prosecutors accused him of using personal email to conceal communications involving controversial coronavirus research funding.
Leave it up to NPR to write like there’s been no updates since Fauci was pushing wet market bat theories to throw everyone off the Wuhan lab scent.
