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Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
Kerri Miller and Marcheta Fornoff

Can a U.S. intelligence probe unearth the origin of COVID-19?

Virus Outbreak Variant
This 2020 electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Rocky Mountain Laboratories shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles that cause COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S.
NIAID-RML via AP 2020

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The exact origin of COVID-19 and how it spread to humans could remain unknown for years, but President Biden is asking the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” and report back in 90 days.

There are a few theories for what might have happened, but one of the leading hypotheses is that the virus might have jumped from a bat to another animal before infections spread to humans.

In late March, a team of global scientists working with the World Health Organization released a report saying that while a lab leak is possible, they described it as the least likely explanation.

However, that theory is being re-examined after The Wall Street Journal reported details from a U.S. intelligence report describing three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology getting sick in November of 2019.

Wednesday at 9 a.m., host Kerri Miller spoke with two infectious disease physicians about the importance of understanding the origins of COVID-19 and why it is so difficult to pin down.

Guests:
Dr. Celine Gounder is a clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine and treats patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is the founder and CEO of Just Human Productions and also served as a COVID-19 adviser to the Biden-Harris administration.

Dr. Manisha Juthani is an infectious disease physician and associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Yale School of Medicine.

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To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.