Ralph Baric

Slack messages released by Rand Paul reveal private doubts among authors of a key 2020 paper on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting they were uncertain about the virus's bat origin and considered a lab-leak possibility, despite their public conclusion ruling out a laboratory origin. The authors, including Kristian Andersen and Eddie Holmes, acknowledged limited evidence and internal debates over the furin cleavage site, while coordinating with U.S. intelligence and NIH.

Slack messages released by Rand Paul reveal private doubts among authors of a key 2020 paper on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, contradicting their public assertion that the virus did not originate in a lab. The authors, including Kristian Andersen and Eddie Holmes, privately assigned probabilities to a lab origin, while coordinating with U.S. intelligence and NIH as they defended their public conclusions.