One of the world’s most sensitive and consequential scientific questions will soon be grist for discussion among the members of a congressional subcommittee. The question is this: Where did the virus that causes covid-19 come from?
The subcommittee, created under a resolution adopted by the House on Jan. 9, is charged with investigating aspects of the pandemic and our national response. Its members (seven Republicans, five Democrats) have still not been named. The origin question is a seductive one, but it is also the mystery that they will be least likely and least qualified to solve — and they should focus their mission elsewhere.
Consider one implication you might draw from a lab leak: We need less science, especially of the sort that fiddles with dangerous viruses. And from a natural spillover: We need more science, especially of the sort that studies dangerous viruses lurking in wild animals. From a lab leak: It was those foolish scientists in a Chinese lab who unleashed this terrible virus upon us. Suspicion, accusation, presumption of guilt and even a tincture of racism may therefore inform our relations with China, not an effort to encourage transparency and scientific exchange.