“Curious Coincidence: A journey to the origins of COVID-19.”
MIT Technology Review, February 10, 2022
Podcast
Hosted by investigative reporter Antonio Regalado
“A new MIT Technology Review original series investigates the mystery of Covid-19.”
More than two years since the pandemic started, we still don’t know where the virus came from. Why is it so hard to find out its origin story, and why does the search matter? This is a 5-part podcast series about the search for answers to these questions.
Hosted by investigative reporter Antonio Regalado, Curious Coincidence dives into the mysterious origins of Covid-19 by examining China’s trade in wild animals, the labs doing sensitive research on dangerous pathogens, and questions of whether a lab accident may have touched off a global pandemic.
Episodes
1. Origins: Why we need to find the truth, and the “curious coincidence” that set off a battle over Covid-19’s origin.
2. Sleuths: A group of self-appointed online investigators put a Chinese lab under the microscope. Their findings only deepen doubts.
3. Labs: Lab accidents have caused disease outbreaks before, and accidents are more common—and more secret—than you think.
4. China: Scientists zero in on a market in the city of Wuhan as the place the pandemic started. But information on China’s wild-animal trade is hard to uncover.
5. Pandora’s Box: Is some knowledge too dangerous to possess? Covid-19 has put cutting-edge research on pandemic germs under the spotlight.
About the Author:
Antonio Regalado is a reporter and editor who covers the cures and controversies coming out of biology labs. His beat is emerging biotechnology, including gene-editing, stem cells, and brain-machine interfaces. Regalado is the winner of awards for reporting on agriculture, Covid-19, and reproductive technology. He was previously the Latin America correspondent for Science magazine, based in São Paulo, Brazil and before that a science reporter and foreign correspondent at The Wall Street Journal.
