#169 - Katherine Eban: COVID-19 Lab Leak: Examining all sides of the debate and discussing barriers to a full investigation

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Katherine Eban is an award-winning investigative journalist who previously appeared on The Drive to discuss the widespread fraud in the generic drug industry. In this episode, she discusses the content of her recent Vanity Fair article, which examined the evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from a virus lab escape as opposed to a natural virus that came from an animal host. Katherine and Peter walk through the evidence for both theories as well as discuss the long and troubling history of dangerous lab leaks and safety concerns about the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They also talk about the controversy surrounding gain-of-function research and its funding by the US government. Finally, they conclude with a discussion on the likelihood of definitively establishing the origins of the virus given the Chinese government’s lack of cooperation and highlight the fact that the many barriers to performing a full investigation may be the most troubling aspect of the controversy. This episode was originally recorded on July 6, 2021.

We discuss:

An overview of the lab leak controversy [1:30];
The troubling history of lab leaks of dangerous pathogens [8:30];
The zoonotic transmission theory: did SARS2 come from a bat? [11:45];
The debate about gain-of-function (GoF) research [26:15];
Questions about US funding of GoF research in China [33:45];
The uncertain significance of the furin cleavage site [51:30];
Discerning what’s most important about both the zoonotic transmission and lab leak theories [1:01:15];
Barriers to a full investigation [1:19:15]; and
More.

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Show notes page for this episode: https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban2

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the Drive Podcast.
0:13.0	I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:14.8	This podcast, my website, and my weekly newsletter, all focus on the goal of translating
0:18.7	the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone.
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0:33.2	in depth content if you want to take your knowledge of this space to the next level.
0:37.3	At the end of this episode, I'll explain what those benefits are, or if you want to learn
0:41.0	more now, head over to peteratiamd.com forward slash subscribe.
0:46.3	Now without further delay, here's today's episode.
0:51.0	My guest this week is Catherine Eban.
0:53.4	Catherine is an investigative journalist and also a previous guest on the podcast back in
0:58.0	September of 2019 when we spoke about her book, Bottle of Lies, which dug into the prevalence
1:05.2	of fraud in the generic drug manufacturing industry.
1:08.6	Well, Catherine's back again this time to discuss yet another controversial topic.
1:13.6	This time around the origins of COVID-19, or the virus responsible for COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2.
1:22.0	Catherine is one of a number of journalists who has written a detailed piece on this,
1:26.4	hers in Vanity Fair.
1:29.1	And in this episode, we get into a lot of detail about both sides of this.
1:34.0	I suspect most of you are at least somewhat familiar with this, but if not, let me provide
1:38.2	a little bit of background.
	...

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