COVID-19 lab leak theory short on evidence, long on guesswork: Foreign Policy

A woman wearing a face mask is seen in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Rahel Patrasso)

COVID-19 leaked from lab? "We're completely in want of evidence," Stephen Goldstein, who studies evolutionary virology at the University of Utah, was quoted by Foreign Policy as saying.

NEW YORK, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The lab leak theory about the current COVID-19 pandemic just doesn't hold up, reported U.S. news publication Foreign Policy recently.

"While the theory was reported, many media outlets also dismissed it as conspiracy mongering. The possibility of a routine lab accident became caught up in the theories about bio-weapons and germ warfare," the publication said in a report released on Tuesday.

"Scientists were keen to focus debate on how to deal with the pandemic, not a geopolitical fracas," it said, adding that "beyond those crumbs of truth, however, everything is just speculation."

A student wearing a face mask and a face shield attends a class during the trial face-to-face learning at a school in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 7, 2021. (Photo by Agung Kuncahya B./Xinhua)

Though the noise keeps on rising, none of this means a lab leak is impossible and "there has been scant new, hard evidence pointing to the lab leak theory," said Foreign Policy in its report. "One of the most effective parts of the lab leak theory is not the quality of evidence but the quantity. Bits and pieces are fired out at a rapid pace, some of them even contradicting each other, before they can be adequately discussed or broken down."

"I don't think that we've learned anything new in the last few months," Stephen Goldstein, who studies evolutionary virology at the University of Utah, was quoted by Foreign Policy as saying. "We're completely in want of evidence."

Science has confirmed that the COVID-19 virus is a "natural virus," not a bioweapon, added the report.