{"id":246121,"date":"2021-05-10T06:36:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T03:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/"},"modified":"2021-05-10T06:36:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T03:36:03","slug":"theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/","title":{"rendered":"#Theory that COVID escaped from a lab may not be far-fetched"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2b6cf09ca43\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2b6cf09ca43\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#Bat_Lady_and_the_Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology\" >Bat Lady and the Wuhan Institute of Virology\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#Testing_the_Two_Scenarios\" >Testing the Two Scenarios\u00a0<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#1_Origin\" >1. Origin\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#2_Natural_history\" >2. Natural history\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#3_The_furin_cleavage_site\" >3. The furin cleavage site\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/#Who_was_at_fault\" >Who was at fault?\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Theory that COVID escaped from a lab may not be far-fetched<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>Nicholas Wade is an author and former <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> writer for The New York Times.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The SARS-CoV-2 virus has disrupted people\u2019s lives around the world for more than a year. But there\u2019s no clear answer on one of the most important things about it: where it came from.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In fact, if you brush away all the politics about the issue \u2014 Donald Trump said it came from a lab, therefore it can\u2019t have \u2014 and look just at the scientific facts, a reasonably likely answer is buried there. I\u2019ll try to explain what it is and sort out some of the consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are two theories about the origin of SARS2, as the virus can be called for short. One is that it jumped naturally from bats to people, as the SARS1 epidemic did in 2002. The other is that it escaped from an experiment in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China\u2019s leading center of research on bat-type viruses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The natural-emergence theory has long held the upper hand, in part because of strong statements made by virology experts from early on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,\u201d a group of virologists and others wrote in The Lancet on Feb. 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Scientists \u201coverwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,\u201d they said, calling for readers to stand with Chinese colleagues on the front line of fighting the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the New York City-based EcoHealth Alliance. Daszak\u2019s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to The Lancet\u2019s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, \u201cWe declare no competing interests.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Peter Daszak, president of the New York City-based EcoHealth Alliance.\" class=\"wp-image-18197641 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Virus-Outbreak-China-WHO-Mission.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Virus-Outbreak-China-WHO-Mission.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Virus-Outbreak-China-WHO-Mission.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Virus-Outbreak-China-WHO-Mission.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Virus-Outbreak-China-WHO-Mission.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Peter Daszak, president of the New York City-based EcoHealth Alliance.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Ng Han Guan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virologists have a significant stake in the origin issue because they have for years enhanced the danger of natural viruses in their laboratories.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Their rationale is that they could get ahead of nature by discovering the few tweaks that will let an animal virus infect humans. This knowledge, they argued, would help predict and prevent pandemics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So if in fact one of these souped-up viruses is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, virologists everywhere, not just in China, will have a lot of explaining to do. \u201cIt would shatter the scientific edifice top to bottom,\u201d MIT <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology<\/a> Review editor Antonio Regalado said in March 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bat_Lady_and_the_Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology\"><\/span>Bat Lady and the Wuhan Institute of Virology\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As it happens, virologists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China were doing exactly these kinds of experiments. The program was headed by Dr. Zheng-li Shi, known as Bat Lady in China because of her intense interest in bat viruses. Dr. Shi had gathered many coronaviruses, the type to which SARS2 belongs, from caves in Yunnan in southern China. Her research focused on the spike proteins which stud the surface of the virus and latch on to its target cells.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The exact nature of the spike proteins determines which kind of animal species the virus can infect. Shi was taking spike protein genes from different viruses, inserting them into a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of virus backbones, and trying to find the combination that would best attack humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She tested her viruses out not on real people but on cultures of human cells and on humanized mice \u2014 mice that have been genetically engineered to carry in the cells of their airways the human protein that\u2019s the target of SARS-type viruses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"633\" alt=\"Dr. Zheng-li Shi, a scientist known as &quot;Bad Lady&quot; in China, working in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017.\" class=\"wp-image-18197625 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/1215076808.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/1215076808.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/1215076808.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/1215076808.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/1215076808.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Zheng-li Shi, a scientist known as \u201cBad Lady\u201d in China, working in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Feature China\/Barcroft <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Unfortunately, Shi was on track to create viruses far more infectious than she realized, very possibly including SARS2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was systematically constructing novel chimeric coronaviruses and was assessing their ability to infect human cells and human-ACE2-expressing mice,\u201d says Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University and leading expert on biosafety.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also clear,\u201d Dr. Ebright said, \u201cthat, depending on the constant genomic contexts chosen for analysis, this work could have produced SARS-CoV-2 or a proximal progenitor of SARS-CoV-2.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenomic context\u201d refers to the viral backbone being used.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How do we know for sure that this is what Shi was doing? Because, by a strange twist in the story, she was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health \u2014 channeled through Daszak. And these grant proposals, a matter of public record, spell out exactly what experiments she planned to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not only was she generating dangerous viruses, she was doing so in arguably unsafe conditions. There are many Internet photos of Shi working in a bubble suit in the highest-level safety lab, known as a BSL4. But these labs are a pain to work in, and all her coronavirus work, she has said, was done at lower safety levels, including one known as BSL2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But despite the fancy acronym, BSL2 doesn\u2019t require very much. You have to wear a lab coat and gloves, put up a biohazard warning, and that\u2019s about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that some or all of this work was being performed using a biosafety standard \u2014 biosafety level 2, the biosafety level of a standard US dentist\u2019s office \u2014 that would pose an unacceptably high risk of infection of laboratory staff upon contact with a virus having the transmission properties of SARS-CoV-2,\u201d says Ebright.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So the lab-escape scenario is not the conjecture of some conspiracy theorists. It\u2019s not based on someone pointing to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and saying, \u201cYeah, I think the virus could have come from there.\u201d It rests on the specific program of research that Shi was known to be pursuing, and on the fact that she was working in minimal, probably inadequate, safety conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Dr. Zheng-li Shi has admitted that she wasn't always in the highest level of safety gear while researching.\" class=\"wp-image-18197634 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-643961442.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-643961442.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-643961442.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-643961442.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-643961442.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Zheng-li Shi has admitted that she wasn\u2019t always in the highest level of safety gear while researching.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Meanwhile, the rival scenario, that of natural emergence, has been looking less likely by the month. Viruses that jump from an animal host to humans usually leave a trail of signatures in the natural environment. When SARS1 jumped from bats to civets to people in 2002, researchers could track in fine detail how the virus improved its infectivity for human cells by gaining one helpful mutation after another. In the case of SARS2, no one has yet found any trace of its existence in the natural environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Chinese authorities had every incentive to present any such evidence to the World Health Organization when it visited Beijing in February of this year. But despite a presumably intensive search, they had nothing to offer. They had discovered no bat colony infected by the source virus, no intermediate host animal, and no human population exposed to the virus as it gathered strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Testing_the_Two_Scenarios\"><\/span>Testing the Two Scenarios\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>So matters stand at an impasse. There is no direct evidence for either the natural-emergence or lab-escape scenario. And until Chinese authorities unlock the records of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, there is no proof that the virus escaped from Dr. Shi\u2019s lab, however plausible that might seem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the absence of direct evidence, the best approach is to take various important facts about the pandemic and ask which of the two scenario provides the better explanation. Here are three tests of the two scenarios:\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Origin\"><\/span>1. Origin\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The bats that harbor the closest known relatives of SARS2 live in caves in Yunnan in southern China. If the pandemic had started by infecting people living around the caves, that would strongly favor natural emergence. But the pandemic broke out nearly 1,000 miles away in Wuhan, at a time of year when bats go into hibernation. Under the natural-emergence scenario, it\u2019s hard to see how the virus broke out naturally somewhere outside Wuhan, and then popped up in the city without leaving any trace of its origin elsewhere. With lab escape, it\u2019s a no-brainer: Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were cooking up hyper-dangerous viruses in inadequate safety conditions, and one escaped.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Natural_history\"><\/span>2. Natural history\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For viruses jumping to new hosts, it usually takes a lot of time and many mutations to perfect their adjustment to the new target species. This process has been mapped in detail for the SARS1 virus. But researchers looking for the same adaptation in SARS2 made a strange discovery. From the moment it first appeared, the SARS2 virus was almost perfectly adapted to human cells and has changed hardly at all since.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is hard to explain under the natural-emergence scenario. But from the lab-escape scenario it\u2019s pretty obvious: The virus was being grown in humanized mice so of course was well adapted to people from the start.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_The_furin_cleavage_site\"><\/span>3. The furin cleavage site\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Without getting too deeply into the details of the SARS2 virus\u2019 anatomy, there is a small region of its spike protein called the furin cleavage site, just 12 units of its 30,000-unit genome.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A virus usually acquires inserts like this by accidentally exchanging genomic units with another virus when both invade the same cell. But no other known virus in SARS2\u2019s group has this 12-unit insert.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Proponents of natural emergence argue that the virus could have acquired the insert from human cells after it had jumped to people. Maybe, but no one has yet found the human population in which the virus might have evolved this way. The insert also contains entities known as arginine codons, which are common in humans but not in coronaviruses like SARS2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the lab-escape scenario, the insert is easy to explain. \u201cSince 1992 the virology community has known that the one sure way to make a virus deadlier is to give it a furin cleavage site,\u201d writes Dr. Steven Quay, a biotech entrepreneur interested in the origins of SARS2. At least 11 such experiments have been published, including one by Dr. Shi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus,\u201d said David Baltimore, an eminent virologist and former president of the California Institute of Technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_was_at_fault\"><\/span>Who was at fault?\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The lab-escape scenario explains the facts above far more easily than does natural emergence. So let\u2019s ask who is to blame, provisionally, if the virus did indeed escape from a lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first in line are Dr. Shi and her colleagues. They were generating dangerous viruses in unsafe conditions. True, they were following the same international rules as are used by virologists everywhere. But they should have made their own assessments of the risks they were running.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Second in line for rebuke are the Chinese authorities, who have done their utmost to conceal the nature of the tragedy and their responsibility for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Third are virologists around the world who knew better than anyone the dangers of enhancing natural viruses but couldn\u2019t resist the temptation. Their assurance that the benefits were real and the risks containable were not correct. The benefits have been zero and the risk, it would seem, catastrophic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fourth may be the US National Institutes of Health, which funded Shi\u2019s research via Daszak, despite a moratorium from 2014 to 2017. The reporting system that replaced the moratorium required funding agencies to mention hazardous research but the NIH did not do so. If the SARS2 virus did indeed escape from Shi\u2019s lab, the NIH will be in the unenviable position of having funded research that has killed 3 million people worldwide, including 500,000 US citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What should happen now? Perhaps Western governments should tell China they will now assume the virus originated from the Wuhan lab, absent evidence to the contrary, and ask China to open up all its records or forever forfeit the West\u2019s trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>China has an interesting fall-back position: OK, we let the virus escape, but you funded this dangerous research on our territory. Might this be the face-saving formula under which both sides could then focus on ensuring no such pandemic is ever unleashed again?\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/05\/09\/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Theory that COVID escaped from a lab may not be far-fetched&#8221; Nicholas Wade is an author and former science writer for The New York Times.\u00a0 The SARS-CoV-2 virus has disrupted people\u2019s lives around the world for more than a year. But there\u2019s no clear answer on one of the most important things about it: where&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/wuhan-institute.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[105141,4973,1545,74139],"class_list":["post-246121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-9-21","tag-china","tag-coronavirus","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}