How did the Covid-19 pandemic begin? We need to investigate all credible hypotheses | Alison Young

The news has reignited the overheated public debate over the two prevailing hypotheses for the origin of Covid-19, but the case remains far from closed

This week's revelation that a top US scientific agency has joined the FBI in leaning toward a lab accident in China as the most likely source of the Covid pandemic has once again surfaced the entrenched politics that have impeded the search for answers since day one.

The new assessment is contained in a classified intelligence report, first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by other media organizations. It is a small, yet important development in what has been the largely stalled search for how the SARS-CoV-2 virus - which was first detected in Wuhan, China - made its initial jump to infect humans before spreading around the world and killing millions.

Alison Young is an investigative reporter in Washington, DC, and serves as the Curtis B Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting for the Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri. Her book, Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk, will be released in April.