The Edition: how the lab leak theory is looking increasingly plausible
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With author Matt Ridley, virologist Dr Dennis Carroll, deputy political editor Katy Balls, hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray, journalists Harry Mount and Rebecca Reid.
Presented by William Moore.
Produced by Cindy Yu, Max Jeffery and Sam Russell.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:24.7 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator. |
| 0:28.3 | Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue and the |
| 0:33.2 | writers behind them. I'm William Moore, the Spectators Features Editor. On this episode, we're discussing |
| 0:40.0 | the theory that COVID originated from a lab in Wuhan and why the theory is now being taken |
| 0:45.4 | more seriously. Also on the podcast, are English tourists welcome in Scotland and is being rude |
| 0:52.8 | the secret to success? |
| 1:04.3 | First up, did COVID escape from a lab? What was dismissed as a conspiracy theory in the early days of the pandemic is now getting a serious hearing, as a number of leading scientists |
| 1:08.9 | call for a fully independent inquiry. |
| 1:12.1 | Science journalist Matt Ridley, whose upcoming book looks at this exact question, writes |
| 1:17.3 | this week's Spectator cover article on the evidence stacking up in favour of the lab leak theory. |
| 1:23.6 | He joins me now, together with Dr Dennis Carroll, chair of the Global Viran Project, which tries to predict future pandemics. |
| 1:32.3 | Matt, you write in your piece that a year ago you dismissed the lab leak theory. |
| 1:37.3 | You've since changed your mind on this. Can you explain why? |
| 1:41.0 | Yes, I've changed my mind only to the extent that I think it's plausible, not that I think it's |
| 1:45.2 | definitely happened. I think it needs to be investigated properly. And there's basically five |
| 1:50.0 | reasons why. In a year and a half, very little evidence has emerged to support the natural |
| 1:54.5 | transfer hypothesis. More than 80,000 animals have been tested in China on farms, in markets, etc. None of them had this virus. |
| 2:03.6 | And in the case of SARS, it was weeks before the connection with the food chain and the |
| 2:08.3 | civet cats was found. The other reason is that the closest virus that we have found was one |
| 2:14.7 | that was collected by scientists from a mine shaft in southern China, in Yunnan, |
| 2:20.5 | and taken back to Wuhan. And that's a journey of 1,885 kilometres by road. So it's not |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.