This is The Guardian.

Today, a detective story about how a conspiracy theory was born

and within weeks came to be believed by more than a quarter of Americans.

I first saw it on Facebook. Maybe you did too.

Labs in Ukraine. Funded by the US government.

Plotting to unleash biological weapons right on the Russian border.

The story goes that capturing these labs is the real reason Russia invaded Ukraine.

According to a recent poll, more than a quarter of Americans now think that story is definitely or probably true.

But Justin Ling, a Canadian journalist, had already investigated the theory and he knew it wasn't.

And last month he watched horrified as it picked up steam and spread around the world.

I think the moment it breaks through is when Tucker Carlson opens his show.

Good evening and welcome to Tucker Carlson tonight.

If you had told us just four days ago that the Biden administration was funding secret bio labs in Ukraine of all places,

we would not have believed you. Yeah, I don't think we're going to put that on TV. No thanks.

With this sort of lengthy diet tribe where he says, you know, we didn't want to talk about this.

We were told this was all disinformation. We were all, we were told this was all Russian propaganda.

And then he sort of backs into it and says, but it's all true.

Does Ukraine have biological weapons?

Uh, Ukraine has biological research facilities.

What?

You mean secret bio labs?

Like the secret bio labs you Ukraine definitely doesn't have?

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