Caltech’s David Baltimore discusses the debate over origins of SARS-CoV-2
This picture, taken on November 27, 2018, shows biologist and summit chair David Baltimore (center right) of the California Institute of Technology speaking at a press conference during the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong. (Photo credit: Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)
There has been renewed discussion and interest into understanding the biological origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar viruses before it have been shown to have jumped from animals to humans; yet this link has not yet been definitively found for SARS-CoV-2.
Caltech’s David Baltimore, president emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology, is a virologist who received the Nobel Prize for his research into viral genetics. Baltimore was an organizer of the first Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA held in 1975 to discuss ethics and regulation of biotechnology. We sat down with him to discuss the debate over the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
What are the arguments that suggest SARS-CoV-2 is a naturally evolved virus? What is the evidence that suggests that it may have originated in and accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China?
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