Majority of voters believe COVID-19 emerged from lab: Poll

A new poll shows a majority of voters believe COVID-19 originated in a lab.

“Our @trafalgar_group @COSProject #poll released on the @seanhannity @FoxNews show tonight, shows that most Americans believe #coronavirus came from a lab not nature,” said Trafalgar group chief pollster Robert C. Cahaly, whose firm was behind the poll.

The poll comes as the theory that COVID-19 may have accidentally leaked from a Wuhan lab has gained renewed attention in recent weeks after being dismissed as a conspiracy theory for much of the previous year.

Even the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has seemingly changed his tune about the origins of the virus. During an interview with National Geographic in May of last year, Fauci brushed off the possibility that could have originated in a Chinese lab.

THIS IS THE EVIDENCE RESEARCHERS SAY COULD SETTLE THE COVID-19 LAB LEAK DEBATE

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci said at the time.

But just over one year later, Fauci admitted he was “not convinced” that COVID-19 emerged naturally.

“No, actually. … No, I’m not convinced about that. I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened,” Fauci said last month. “Certainly, the people who’ve investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could’ve been something else, and we need to find that out. So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus.”

The sudden openness to the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab has now spilled over into public opinion, even finding some rare bipartisan agreement.

Broken down by party, 37.2% of Democrats believe the virus was “human engineered” and either intentionally or unintentionally released from a Wuhan lab. Meanwhile, 28.3% of Democrats believe that the disease is “naturally occurring” and originated in a Wuhan wet market.

Republicans are even more likely to believe in the lab leak theory, with 74.1% saying the virus was human engineered and either intentionally or unintentionally leaked from a Wuhan lab compared to 5.5% who indicated they thought it was naturally occurring.

Among independent voters, 55.4% indicated their support for the lab leak theory compared to 13% who said they believe COVID-19 emerged naturally.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The poll was conducted between June 3-7, surveying 1,025 likely voters with a margin of error of 3.06 percentage points.