Why do some people think that the lab leak theory for the origin of the COVID-19 virus has become official?
The usual suspects…
Is the Lab Leak Theory Official?
Of course, just because Joe Rogan has said that “COVID-19 definitely came from that lab” doesn’t make it so.
After all, before moving on to vaccines, this is the guy who used to believe that the moon landing was faked and routinely talked about aliens from space giving knowledge and technology to ancient civilizations.
The fact that Donald Trump has replaced the official covid.gov website with a new lab leak theory site doesn’t make it official either.
It simply looks like a way for Trump to blame Fauci, Biden, and China for the pandemic.
“Every one of the five pieces of evidence supporting the lab leak hypothesis … is factually incorrect, embellished, or presented in a misleading way.”
And many experts call Trump’s lab leak site pure propaganda.
“Although definitive answers about the virus’s beginnings are elusive and may never be known, scientists have argued as recently as August 2024 in the Journal of Virology that, while they remain open-minded, the weight of evidence favors a spillover event.”
Trump White House replaces Covid website with treatise on ‘lab leak’ theory
Instead of the lab leak theory, many experts instead believe that there was a natural origin for the COVID-19 virus.
“There is currently no verified scientific evidence to support the lab leak hypothesis.”
The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence
Just as there is no evidence to support the other lab leak origin conspiracy theories that these folks push, including:
- Ebola — is Ebola “a laboratory generated virus?” Some people think it could be…
- HIV — the Soviet Union spread propaganda that HIV was created in a US military lab in the 1980s. Others pushed the idea that “AIDS is an agent of genocide created by the US government to kill off minority populations.”
- Lyme disease — the idea is that a man-made strain of Borrelia burgdorferi escaped from Plum Island, a high containment laboratory that supposedly made bioweapons. The problem with the Lyme disease lab leak theory? The type of bacteria that causes Lyme disease has been around for thousands of years.
- Swine flu — Adrian Gibbs, who was actually a veteran flu researcher, claimed that the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus was man made and that “that laboratory errors involving the sharing of virus isolates and cultured cells, or perhaps vaccine production, may have been involved.”
- Bird flu — anti-vaccine influencers are pushing the idea that bird flu is a man-made virus that was leaked from a lab
To them, everything is either a lab leak or some kind of bioweapon!
Which is not to say that these types of incidents can’t happen.
They have!
They include:
- Marburg virus incidents in 1967 — in Germany and Serbia, these were associated with polio vaccine development using African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) imported from Uganda. There were 31 cases and 7 deaths.
- smallpox lab incident in 1977 — Janet Parker became the last known case of smallpox after an isolated incident in a lab in Birmingham
- the reemergence of H1N1 flu in 1977, a strain that had not been seen since the 1950s is a suspected lab leak
- Foot and Mouth disease incident in 2007 – a faulty drainage pipe at a research facility led to a leak near London
- SARS-CoV-1 incidents — at least eight people got sick in China, starting with two lab workers who were working with SARS-CoV in 2003
What’s different about these real lab leaks and all the other conspiracy theories?
These real incidents didn’t involve brand-new organisms!
“It is hard to believe that the world’s scientists have conspired to create research suggesting zoonotic jump (Globe and Mail, 7/28/22; Science, 10/10/22; PNAS, 11/10/22; Scientific American, 3/17/23; Nature, 12/6/24) for the sole purpose of covering up a lab leak.”
Lab Leak: The Official Conspiracy Theory That Still Gets You Credit as a Free Thinker
And while these types of theories are certainly easy to believe, like most conspiracy theories, don’t be so quick to jump in just because you think it is an “official” theory now.
More on the Origins of COVID
Last Updated on April 26, 2025
