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Additional Reporting

The Guardian, 5/30/23

Dangerous lab leaks happen far more often than the public is aware

At biological research facilities across the United States and around the world, hundreds of safety breaches happen every year at labs experimenting with dangerous pathogens. 

The Guardian, 3/2/23

How did the Covid pandemic begin? We need to investigate all credible hypotheses

The news has reignited the overheated public debate over the two prevailing hypotheses for the origin of Covid-19, but the case remains far from closed

USA TODAY, 7/26/21

'No clear answer': Few clues in outbreak of rare bacteria as others test positive

A medical mystery emerging in three states took a concerning turn over the weekend as seven family members in Texas tested positive for potential exposure to a deadly type of bacteria that isn’t supposed to be found in the continental United States.

USA TODAY, 7/11/21

'Doctors are still stunned': How did foreign bacteria leave a Texas girl with brain damage?

For most of the past six weeks, 4-year-old Lylah Baker has been struggling to survive an infection that doctors at Children’s Medical Center Dallas couldn’t beat back. It started out like a typical stomach bug, but within days tore through her body and into her brain.

USA TODAY, 6/24/21

Deleted genetic fingerprints raise questions amid search for COVID-19 origins

A respected U.S. scientist researching the evolution of the COVID-19 virus has uncovered an intriguing mystery with potentially troubling implications: Some of the virus’ earliest genetic fingerprints were quietly deleted last year from an important international database at the request of Chinese scientists.

USA TODAY, 6/17/21

'I remember it very well': Fauci describes secret 2020 meeting about COVID origins

In the early days of the growing coronavirus outbreak that would soon become a pandemic, an elite group of international scientists gathered on a conference call to discuss a shocking possibility: The virus looked like it might have been engineered in a laboratory.

USA TODAY, 3/22/21

Could an accident have caused COVID-19? Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory shouldn't be dismissed

I have reported on safety lapses at elite U.S. labs. There is no reason to believe they aren’t happening at labs in other countries as well.

ProPublica, 8/17/20

Near Misses at UNC Chapel Hill’s High-Security Lab Illustrate Risk of Accidents With Coronaviruses

The mouse infected with a lab-created type of SARS coronavirus was squirming upside down, dangling by its tail as a scientist carried it to a weighing container one day in February 2016. But the mundane task turned dangerous in seconds inside the North Carolina laboratory, which has drawn scrutiny for its partnership on similar research with China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.

ProPublica, 8/17/20

Here Are Six Accidents UNC Researchers Had With Lab-Created Coronaviruses

There have been mouse bites and spills and other mishaps during experiments involving genetically altered coronaviruses at a high-security lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

USA TODAY, 5/21/19

Episiotomies are painful, risky and not routinely recommended. Dozens of hospitals are doing too many.

A USA TODAY analysis finds dozens of hospitals in eight states with episiotomy rates of 20% or higher, some of them nearly double that. “I cannot imagine what on earth is going on with a hospital that has a 20-30% episiotomy rate,” said one expert.

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