![]() The level of biocontainment for these experiments may have been inappropriate. ![]() We also know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention collected specimens from wildlife that typically carry coronaviruses and pursued gain-of-function experiments. These animals could have been vectors for carrying SARS-CoV-2 to humans and for adaptation to growth in humans. Many of these species are known to be infected and/or infectable with SARS-like coronaviruses. We also know that despite promises to shut down wild animal markets in the aftermath of the first SARS outbreak in 2003, thousands of animals were sold in such markets in Wuhan. Genetic analyses indicate that closely related viruses existed in wildlife before human disease was detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019. The known knowns are that SARS-CoV-2 is a new, highly transmissible virus that has the capacity to evolve rapidly. Then, as now, we should be wary that incomplete data and strong opinions not determine high-impact decisions. Nearly two decades later, we are in similar territory in discussing the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. ![]() In 2002, while making the case for the US invasion of Iraq to those who asked for evidence of what we now know to be nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, Donald Rumsfeld referred to known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.
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