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Comment by Michael Worobey

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Evolutionary biologist, University of Arizona; researcher on the origins of pandemics
[T]he less flashy hypothesis that bringing live animals infected with pathogens with pandemic potential into the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world was how this pandemic started.
AI Verified (Apr 18, 2025)
Source:
NPR
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Policy proposals and claims
COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
votes Against
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Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote is directly about the article’s COVID-origin dispute and, in context, presents Michael Worobey’s reason for favoring animal-market spillover over lab-leak scenarios. That makes opposition to the complete statement substantially more likely, so the quote is relevant and stance-determinable. ([npr.org](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 58min ago
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AI Verified The quote points to a market/animal-spillover origin, not a lab accident: he says the pandemic started by “bringing live animals infected with pathogens … into the heart of one of the biggest cities.” In the article’s context, Michael Worobey says the evidence does not support proposed “lab leak scenarios,” so his position is against the statement. ([wxxinews.org](https://www.wxxinews.org/npr-news/2025-04-18/lab-leak-a-flashy-page-on-the-virus-origins-replaces-government-covid-sites)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 57min ago

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AI Verified The quote is authentic: the exact sentence appears in the NPR story at the supplied URL in search results, and NPR-network mirrors (NHPR and KUOW) reproduce the article text attributing it to Michael Worobey "in an email to NPR." The mirror also shows the story was published on April 18, 2025, so the stored author, wording, date, and source URL are consistent. ([npr.org](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
replying to Michael Worobey