From the earliest times of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins, and apparently the entire scientific community insisted that the virus emerged from nature, jumping from an animal species to humans. 

Many pointed out the flaws in this reasoning, finding the possibility of COVID leaking from a laboratory much more likely. Scientific organizations, leftist politicians, and corporate media insisted that such an opinion was dangerous and should be suppressed. Here’s the problem: many of them were knowingly lying. 

Here to give the breakdown is Jeff Smith, Director of the Asian Studies Center, here at the Heritage Foundation.