For years, the question of how COVID-19 began has been treated less as a matter of scientific investigation and more as a political litmus test. Early calls to explore the possibility of a lab-based origin were met with accusations of xenophobia, misinformation, and conspiracy thinking.
But now, with the recent release of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency analysis from 2020, we’re learning that some of the strongest scientific concerns about a lab leak came not from social media or partisan pundits—but from inside the U.S. government itself. And the fact that this analysis was buried for nearly five years raises a bigger issue: how public trust was traded away in the name of narrative control.
In newly disclosed documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, we now have the clearest look yet at how early in the pandemic some…
