Covid Lab Leak Headlines Over Time

(Work in Progress)

It did not take long after Covid was a recognized outbreak (to be classified as a pandemic in March 2020) of a new virus for some people to note that the new virus seemed to have originated only a few miles from a virus research lab. Then the obvious hypothesis that it might have escaped from the lab was proposed. This was followed by a 17th of February 2020 assertion that the idea that the virus had escaped from a lab was a 'fringe theory' that had already been 'debunked.' The next few years saw headlines going back and forth about the possibility (or likelihood or impossibility) that Covid escaped from a lab.

A (non-representative!) sample of headlines (excluding sites such as Daily Mail, Fox, The Sun, ...) with the idea that headlines such as this (possibly via Facebook posts or Twitter tweets ...) were what many people were seeing over those three years:

Date Headline Source
17-Feb-2020 Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have debunked WaPo
8-Mar-2021 In 2018, Diplomats Warned of Risky Coronavirus Experiments in a Wuhan Lab. No One Listened. Politico
17-Mar-2020 The COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin, scientists say Scripps
31-Mar-2021 Theory That COVID Came From A Chinese Lab Takes On New Life In Wake Of WHO Report NPR
21-Apr-2020 China Bat Expert Says Her Wuhan Lab Wasn't Source of New Coronavirus WSJ
22-Apr-2020 Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory Of Pandemic Emergence NPR
1-May-2020 Coronavirus: Trump stands by China lab origin theory for virus BBC
1-May-2020 Fact check: Was the new coronavirus accidentally released from a Wuhan lab? It’s doubtful. Seattle Times
4-May-2020 Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab Nat Geo
20-May-2021 No, Science Clearly Shows That COVID-19 Wasn't Leaked From A Wuhan Lab Forbes
25-May-2021 Fact check: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory for pandemic origin suddenly became credible Seattle Times
27-May-2021 NIH director: 'No way of knowing' if coronavirus escaped from Wuhan lab Politico
28-May-2021 Coronavirus 'lab leak' theory jumps from mocked to maybe as Biden orders intelligence reviewWaPo
2-Jun-2021 NIH Director: We Need an Investigation Into the Wuhan Lab-Leak Theory The Atlantic
3-Jun-2021 Hiltzik: Why the COVID lab-leak hypothesis is quackery LA Times
3-Jun-2021 The Wuhan Lab Leak Hypothesis Is A Conspiracy Theory, Not Science Forbes
4-Jun-2021 Fauci Email Bolsters the Lab-Leak Theory WSJ
6-Jun-2021 The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak WSJ
6-Jun-2021 Exclusive: How Amateur Sleuths Broke the Wuhan Lab Story and Embarrassed the Media Newsweek
8-Jun-2021 U.S. Report Found It Plausible Covid-19 Leaked From Wuhan Lab WSJ
23-Jun-2021 Scientist says early coronavirus samples were deleted from NIH database CNN
24-Jun-2021 Deleted coronavirus genome sequences trigger scientific intrigue Nature
18-Jul-2021 Fauci Says Lab Leak Remains a Possibility, But Covid's Natural Origins Theory Is a More Likely Explanation Rolling Stone
22-Jul-2021 China refuses further inquiry into Covid-19 origins in Wuhan lab The Guardian
1-Aug-2021 Republican report says coronavirus leaked from China lab; scientists still probing origins Reuters
12-Aug-2021 Wuhan Lab Worker Bat Infection a Probable COVID Origin Theory—WHO Official Newsweek
23-Aug-2021 NIH director says Covid likely came from nature, but doesn't rule out it could have escaped from lab CNBC
1-Sep-2021 The Lab-Leak Theory of COVID's Origin Is Not Totally Irrational SciAm
22-Sep-2021 Wuhan Lab Wanted to Genetically Enhance Bat Viruses to Study Human Risks, Documents Show Newsweek
8-Oct-2021 Wuhan, U.S. Scientists Planned to Make Coronaviruses, Documents Leaked by DRASTIC Show Newsweek
12-Oct-2021 Follow the Science: Lab Leak Is Most Likely WSJ
21-Oct-2021 Scientists React As NIH Head Francis Collins Calls Wuhan Lab Leak Theories 'Misinformation' Newsweek
22-Oct-2021 Coronavirus Likely Caused by Natural Occurrence Rather Than Lab Leak, Dr. Fauci says Vanity Fair
24-Oct-2021 'Molecularly Impossible': Fauci Blasts Rand Paul for Covid Lab Theory Rolling Stone
29-Oct-2021 If Covid-19 Came From Wuhan Lab, It Wasn't Engineered, U.S. Spy Agencies Say WSJ
18-Nov-2021 Prominent scientist who said lab-leak theory of covid-19 origin should be probed now believes evidence points to Wuhan market WaPo
18-Nov-2021 First Known Covid Case Was Vendor at Wuhan Market, Scientist Says NYTimes
13-Jan-2022 LILLEY: Emails show rejection of Wuhan lab leak theory pure politics from outset Toronto Sun
26-Feb-2022 Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Undermined as New Research Points to Wet Market Newsweek
27-Feb-2022 New Research Points to Wuhan Market as Pandemic Origin NYTimes
28-May-2022 Anti-Trump sentiment fueled premature dismissal of Wuhan lab theory ChiTrib
9-Jun-2022 Covid Lab Leak Theory Needs More Inquiry, WHO Advisers Say Bloomberg
10-Jun-2022 China slams new WHO report suggesting further investigation into Covid 'lab leak theory NBC
16-Jun-2022 Coronavirus Likely Caused by Natural Occurrence Rather Than Lab Leak, Dr. Fauci says C-SPAN
27-Jun-2022 New studies agree that animals sold at Wuhan market are most likely what started Covid-19 pandemic CNN
22-Sep-2022 Fauci says the Chinese government is 'probably' hiding something about the origins of COVID, but he's not sure it's a lab leak Business Insider
10-Oct-2022 Evidence suggests pandemic came from nature, not a lab, panel says science.org
27-Oct-2022 G.O.P. Senator's Report on Covid Origins Suggests Lab Leak, but Offers Little New Evidence NYT
28-Oct-2022 COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a "Complex and Grave Situation" Inside a Wuhan Lab Vanity Fair
7-Nov-2022 New Questions About The Origin Of Covid-19: Lab Leak Or Not? Forbes
27-Nov-2022 Fauci on Covid lab leak theory: 'I have a completely open mind' Politico
26-Feb-2023 Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says WSJ
27-Feb-2023 Assessment Covid-19 leaked from Chinese lab is a minority view within US intel community, sources say CNN
1-Mar-2023 FBI chief Christopher Wray says China lab leak most likely BBC
17-Mar-2023 Genetic evidence gives support to theory COVID originated in Wuhan market PBS
17-Apr-2023 Covid Emerged as Chinese Lab Faced Biosafety Issues, Senate Republican Study Finds WSJ
30-May-2023 Covid: Top Chinese scientist says don't rule out lab leak BBC
15-Jun-2023 Covid-19 Patients Zero In Wuhan Identified, Boosting Lab Leak Theory Forbes
20-Jun-2023 U.S.-Funded Scientist Among Three Chinese Researchers Who Fell Ill Amid Early Covid-19 Outbreak WSJ

On March 8, 2023 we got this from the Telegraph:
No one believed the Covid Wuhan lab leak theory — then the world changed its tune
Idea that the virus escaped from Chinese city used to be widely dismissed, but is now becoming ever more plausible

When Covid-19 first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019, many pointed out that the outbreak was close to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

Of all the cities in the world, a deadly coronavirus had popped up just eight miles from laboratories where scientists were importing and tinkering with deadly bat coronaviruses.

Even Wuhan scientists themselves were concerned. Dr Shi Zhengli, WIV virologist, told Scientific American that she remembered thinking if coronaviruses were behind the outbreak “could they have come from our lab?”

It should not have been so controversial. Laboratory leaks are fairly common, with smallpox, swine flu, anthrax, and foot and mouth disease all known to have escaped from facilities in recent decades.

In 2004, the Sars virus leaked from a high-containment research laboratory in Beijing at least three times, causing local outbreaks - so such a scenario was far from unprecedented.

— The Telegraph 8 March 2023