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Comment by Kevin M. Esvelt

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MIT biosecurity and gene drive researcher
Chair Hassan, Ranking Member Paul, Senators, thank you for the kind invitation. I have to say that I have no special insights regarding the origins of COVID. In fact, I kind of doubt that there is sufficient evidence to be conclusive in one way or the other. But our models suggest that knowing where it came from would not actually help us defend against future pandemics.
AI Verified (Aug 3, 2022)
Source:
Kevin M. Esvelt, testimony in "Revisiting Gain of Function Research: What the Pandemic Taught Us and Where Do We Go From Here," Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing, August 3, 2022.
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Policy proposals and claims
COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
abstains
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Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote is directly about COVID-19’s origins and says the evidence is not sufficient to be conclusive "one way or the other," so it provides a clear abstaining/uncertain stance signal on the lab-origin-vs-zoonotic-spillover claim. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117shrg48703/html/CHRG-117shrg48703.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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AI Verified He explicitly declines to take a side: he says he has "no special insights regarding the origins of COVID" and doubts there is enough evidence "to be conclusive in one way or the other." That is a direct undecided/neutral stance on whether COVID came from a lab-related incident rather than natural spillover. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117shrg48703/html/CHRG-117shrg48703.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified Verified: the GovInfo transcript of the August 3, 2022 Senate hearing "Revisiting Gain of Function Research: What the Pandemic Taught Us and Where Do We Go From Here" includes this exact passage at lines 599-605, immediately under "TESTIMONY OF KEVIN M. ESVELT, PH.D.," so the quote is verbatim, correctly attributed to Kevin M. Esvelt, and present at the supplied URL. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117shrg48703/html/CHRG-117shrg48703.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
replying to Kevin M. Esvelt