A Canadian scientist said that her colleagues denied the possibility of a lab leak coronavirus origin because they were afraid of being associated with former President Donald Trump and becoming a "tool for racists."
Alina Chan is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University and was among the 18 experts who signed a letter in May demanding that the Wuhan lab leak theory be investigated thoroughly. The letter is widely considered to be a turning point in the debate over the origin of the pandemic.
Chan told NBC News that some scientists were motivated by political considerations in their denial of the hypothesis.
"At the time, it was scarier to be associated with Trump and to become a tool for racists, so people didn't want to publicly call for an investigation into lab origins," Chan said.
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