Call me Back # 21 | Tom Cotton on the Lab Leak Hypothesis of Covid19

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The source of SARS-CoV-2 has been a mystery. One theory that was initially met with a scathing response from many in the media and some in the scientific community was that SARS-CoV-2 might have leaked from a research lab in Wuhan, Hubei in China - the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The leading voice elevating the need to investigate this possible scenario back in February of 2019 was U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). At the time, The New York Times declared Senator Cotton’s remarks a “conspiracy theory.” The Washington Post headlined an article: “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.”

Was it debunked? Or has more light been shed on it that warrants further examination? That’s where we are today, in which we suddenly find the discussion turning. Some in the press and in the science community - and among a bipartisan set of officials - are exploring this hypothesis.

To be clear, these voices are not giving much credence to the possibility that the leak - even if it came from the Wuhan lab - was some kind of deliberate bioweapon attack. The question is whether well-intentioned research there was accidentally leaked. If it was, why can’t we get to the bottom of it? Might have there been a cover-up of a potentially innocent error? What are the implications if there was, indeed, an accident and then a cover-up?

To help us understand all of this, we are joined today by Senator Tom Cotton. He serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee - where he is the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism. He is also on the Armed Services Committee and, most importantly for purposes of this issue, he sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator Cotton is a graduate of Harvard, and Harvard Law School. He served nearly five years on active duty in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer. In Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. He previously worked at McKinsey & Co.

But before we bring on Senator Cotton, we wanted to provide a short explainer of the facts that we know so far, to inform our conversation with the Senator. To help us, science writer Jim Meigs returns to the Post Corona podcast. Jim is the former editor of Popular Mechanics, where he helped reposition that century-old brand to become a major voice on contemporary tech issues. He currently co-hosts the How Do We Fix It? podcast and is working on a book about man-made disasters. Previously, Jim was executive editor at National Geographic Adventure. He’s the monthly tech columnist for Commentary Magazine and is with the Manhattan Institute, the most important urban policy think tank in the U.S.

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