Search for COVID's Origins Puts Risky Bat Research Under the Microscope

Leaks. Research. Spy reports . The search for the origins of the worst pandemic anyone can remember has yielded a sea of information, yet there's no direct evidence that the virus causing COVID-19 either emerged naturally or escaped from a lab, the two leading hypotheses. But this much has become clear: Both nature and humans are seeking to create new, sometimes unpredictable pathogens, and are leaving footprints that are coming to light 20 months after COVID-19 appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. But unlike bats, flying mammals that harbor many coronaviruses , the newly-uncovered details of human research…