Banished
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COVID-19: Lab Leak Or Natural Leap?
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COVID-19: Lab Leak Or Natural Leap?

How politics stymied scientific research into the true origins of the coronavirus.

In February 2020, The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, published a statement by more than two dozen scientists condemning the hypothesis that COVID-19 had leaked from a Chinese lab — effectively halting scientific inquiry along those lines. But a handful of researchers refused to rule out the so-called “lab-leak” theory and soon found themselves shunned and ostracized by their colleagues.

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist and then-postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, was one such researcher. This week on Banished, host Amna Khalid talks with Chan about the politicization of science.

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Banished explores academic freedom, free expression, campus politics and the culture wars. Hosted by Amna Khalid. http://banished.substack.com.