Where and when the Covid-19 pandemic began — in Wuhan, China in late 2019 — is well known. How it began is a matter of heated controversy. There are two competing hypotheses, one of which is hindering ...

Dr. Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” This article has been updated to reflect news ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) clearly indicates that “Rousettus aegyptiacus bats are considered natural hosts for Marburg virus.” (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images) ...

A lab leak was once dismissed by many as a conspiracy theory. But the idea is gaining traction, even as evidence builds that the virus emerged from a market. By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Benjamin ...

The U.S. Energy Department reportedly became the second government agency Sunday to conclude the coronavirus probably leaked from a lab rather than jumping from animals to humans naturally, a “low ...

Inside the high-security Influenza Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two experienced scientists were pulling ferrets out of their HEPA-filtered cages on a Monday in December ...

Organisms, including viruses, live in the deepest, darkest places on the planet Marine virologists analyzed sediment from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth, and identified a new ...

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is widespread among wildlife species, according to new research. The virus was detected in six common backyard species, and antibodies indicating prior ...

Hundreds of deadly virus samples are missing from a laboratory in Australia, the Queensland government announced on Monday. The government has instructed Queensland Health — Australia’s public health ...