Takeaways from AP report on how the search for the coronavirus origins turned toxic
The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings, and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known — in the first weeks of the outbreak — and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out, and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.