COVID 19: Investigating the origins 

Between 13 and 17 millions deaths from COVID, or one human in 500. That’s the latest estimate from the WHO, making COVID the most devastating pandemic since the Spanish flu.

Yet, five years later, its origin remains a mystery. No one can explain precisely where the virus originated or how it spread so rapidly and from the onset, superpowers who could help bring the truth to light – China and the USA – seem to have sought to conceal it. At best, they distract. At worst, they lie. The subject has even become the focus of a diplomatic war between Beijing and Washington: fabricated evidence, false testimony, falsified or concealed scientific research… Anything goes.

The case is as much about scientific manipulation as it is about politics. The virus appeared in Wuhan, China, a stone’s throw from a high-security laboratory but the Chinese Communist Party insists that it came from elsewhere. The Americans, for their part, refuse to admit that they have financed́ high-risk research in that same laboratory.

Across the globe, men and women have vowed to solve the enigma: virus hunters in Vietnam, amateur detectives in New Zealand, a senator heading an investigative committee in Washington or a scientist at the WHO office in Geneva… Alongside them, two investigative journalists have led a forbidden investigation for five years. This is what they found.