US officials may have avoided the coronavirus lab-leak theory to avoid associations with controversial gain-of-function research

Guards stand outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology on February 3, 2021.
Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty
Scientists haven't ruled out the possibility that the coronavirus leaked from a lab.
US agencies have given grants to a nonprofit that funds laboratories that alter coronaviruses.
So US officials may have dismissed the lab leak theory to avoid association with this research.
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