Controversy, Conclusions and the Complicated Quest for Answers
February 5, 2026—Six years after the worldwide outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that killed over 7 million people, researchers are still asking how the virus started.
Today, it is perhaps even more relevant to seek the truth about what happened. Given the breakdown in international law and the abandonment of foundations to punish war crimes, mass atrocities, and genocide, the public must ensure that scientific research is honorable.
Snapshot of the Impact
First, here is a brief overview of the virus’s global impact: The World Health Organization estimates that 7,109,667 people have died from the virus since 2019. Some areas were hit harder than others, indicating either differences in susceptibility to the virus or variations in reporting data.
For example, the WHO reports that 1.2 million people in the United States died—the largest number in the world. Meanwhile, virus-related deaths in China were 122,398. Other countries like North Korea and Turkmenistan did not report any deaths to the WHO. Worldwide, most fatalities occurred in older populations. In fact, 89 percent of all deaths were among people over 65 years of age. In contrast, children age 0 to 14 years old made up less than one percent of the fatal outcomes.
See map…
Global Economic Impact
Meanwhile, the economic impact was also dramatic. Emergency responses by governments radically increased public and private debt. It also sharply drove up inequality within and across countries, according to the World Bank. Emerging economies were unable to absorb the shock and scale as countries that could more easily rely on debt. In contrast, cash-ready countries grew richer. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the state-owned sovereign fund found bargains to buy, helping the country diversify its economy.
In the United States, the estimated economic cost was somewhere between $3.3 trillion and $4.8 trillion over a two-year period, according to the academic researchers Terri Walmsley, Adam Rose, and Dan Wei.
US-China Collaboration
The virus drew attention to global partnerships in science, such as the U.S. grant funding for research in China. Before the pandemic, most of the public was not aware of the U.S.-China collaboration. Moreover, it is safe to say that only a few people knew about the high-risk experimentation taking place abroad.
In 2023, public and private investigations revealed that the U.S. government was funding high-stakes research of pathogens in at least 78 countries. The government funded grants through USAID (now closed permanently), the Defense Department (now called “War”), and the National Institutes of Health. In many of the countries, including China, safety standards and regulations were lax. As more information about the research emerged, U.S. intelligence agencies came under pressure to release their findings on the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
Gain-of-Function
The public learned that the U.S. government was funding risky gain-of-function research abroad that could not be legally conducted in the United States. Gain-of-function (GOF) research is defined as experiments that would increase the pathogenicity or transmissibility of potential pandemic pathogens.
Last year, supporters and critics of gain-of-function (GOF) research continued to hash out the relative costs and benefits of experimenting with lethal pathogens. (See a Congressional Research Report examining the issues for legislators. The link is below.) At the same time in July 2025, NIH paused over 40 projects on pathogen studies that met the definition of “dangerous gain-of-function research.” The NIH notice cited the Executive Order on “Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research” that President Donald Trump signed on May 5, 2025. Science magazine reported that the projects that ended were taking place in U.S. universities and at NIH. An additional 172 projects were under review.
The Origins of the Virus
Mystery continues to surround investigations into the Covid-19 virus. Rather than fostering confidence and public trust, initial reporting on the virus’s origins created controversy. U.S. intelligence agencies reported various theories, including a lab-leak theory and natural transmission.
Other developments suggest federal researchers intentionally misled, skewed, or covered up evidence. A recap of events is as follows. U.S. agency heads held a conference call on February 1, 2020 in which participants were warned that “COVID-19 might have leaked” from the lab studying genetic mutations. Yet three days later, the NIH published a report authored by Zalgen Labs, a biotech company that relies on U.S. federal funds, asserting the opposite conclusion. The study became known as the “Proximal Origin” paper—a highly flawed and controversial report.
By 2023, lawmakers and staff investigating the virus asserted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the CDC, pushed the study in an “attempt to kill the lab leak theory.” In their final report, they also asserted that Dr. Francis Collins, then-director of the NIH, “expressed dismay when Proximal Origin [paper] did not successfully kill the lab leak theory.”
Their 55-page report to Congress details the communications, assertions, and thinking of federal scientists. While partisan interests may have driven the investigation, researchers can find primary source material in the report.
The trail of papers suggests they were primarily concerned, not with finding answers, but with the possibility that answers might “distract top researchers from their active duties and do unnecessarily harm to science in general and science in China in particular.” They were determined to characterize the lab-leak theory as a “conspiracy.”
Lab-Leak Most Likely Cause
That same year, a classified intelligence report indicated that it most likely originated from a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Last Spring, the White House endorsed the theory in a lengthy posting.
That concurs with the GER‘s reporting. In April 2020, the GER carefully reviewed publicly available—or open source—information and determined that the virus likely started in the Wuhan lab. Scientists at the facility started studying bat-borne viruses at least as early as 2004. By January 2018, the WIV opened a National Bio-safety Laboratory began working on the most dangerous pathogens. Their researchers conducted cave expeditions throughout China, from the Tibetan highlands to the southern coast, collecting samples of bat-borne viruses.
Truth Still Matters
So why does it matter six years later? For one, public trust in institutions is necessary for a civil society and a functioning government. But also relevant are underlying questions regarding a deadly pathogen manipulated in a laboratory funded by one government and carried out by another.
Today, it is perhaps even more relevant to seek the truth about what happened. Given the breakdown in international law and the abandonment of foundations to punish war crimes, mass atrocities, and genocide, the public must ensure that scientific research is honorable.
It should be noted that a group of scientists studying the virus in 2021 found evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in incidence. Of course, that does not indicate intent or plot. Neither can one ignore that COVID-19 killed minorities, including blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos, at higher rates than white Caucasians. According to one study in 2021, the rate of incidence was 1.4 times higher for blacks than whites in the United States. The CDCs own findings back the disparity. Again, that is not to say intent was involved. More likely, as the paper asserted, “minority groups have disproportionate rates of underlying conditions that increase the risk for severe illness from coronavirus disease.”
As the Mayo Clinic later noted, disparities in income and experience with racial discrimination impact health in terms of treatment, insurance, and well-being. (Source linked below.)
FOIA Requests Flood U.S. Agencies
Today, public interest groups like Judicial Watch, the U.S. Right to Know, the White Coat Waste Project, and Empower Oversight are still seeking answers. They and others have flooded U.S. government agencies with Freedom of Information Act requests for information. Agencies queried include the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Energy Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NIH, as well as many others. (See the U.S. Right to Know for updates on the cases.)
The WHO also sought discovery. However, when its team looked for answers in Wuhan in 2021, the collaboration with scientists there was seen as a political win for China and a significant loss for science.
Wuhan Still Studying
As of early 2026, the Wuhan Institute of Virology continues to operate as a leading research center in China, focusing on virology and biosafety. The facility hosts an annual conference drawing in prestigious researchers from around the world. U.S. representatives attend the events. However, the U.S. government no longer provides funds to the lab. The ban on funding lasts through 2033.
Meanwhile, an infectious disease specialist in South Korea summarized why the scientific community is still investigating unresolved questions about COVID. Jin-Hong Yoo, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Korean Medical Science, examined three hypotheses about the virus, including the lab-leak theory, the natural transmission theory, and one that asserts that the virus was deliberately engineered as a biological weapon.
“It is implausible to assume that any government would orchestrate such a self-destructive act,” Jin-Hong writes. Noting political interference in China, the writer adds, the theory cannot be dismissed. “Science begins with questions and derives its answers through evidence. When political interference enters this journey—as illustrated by the White House’s premature endorsement of the lab-leak theory—the first victim is truth, and the second is ourselves.”
Sources:
The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Tracker Dashboard https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths
The World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2022/brief/chapter-1-introduction-the-economic-impacts-of-the-covid-19-crisis
The economic costs of COVID in the United States: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7725664/
Science magazine article: https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-nih-suspends-dozens-pathogen-studies-over-gain-function-concerns
The Mayo Clinic report, COVID-19 infections by race: What’s behind the health disparities?.
Race-related findings: Covid Tracking: https://covidtracking.com/race
CDC’s Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death by Race/Ethnicity: https://web.archive.org/web/20260205190749/https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html
“On the Controversies Surrounding the Lab-Leak Theory of COVID-19,” by Jin-Hong Yoo https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12040609/
Congressional researcher Todd Kuiken examined the pros and cons of high-risk gain-of-function research on lethal virul pathogens, making recommendations for legislators.
