Meet the Germhunters

Peter Daszak is president of the EcoHealth Alliance, where he leads a team of researchers working to identify emerging diseases around the world, the so-called zoonotic viruses that leap from animals to humans. This year, he went to China with the World Health Organization to track the origins of COVID-19. Daszak says cooperation with China — which theorizes that the coronavirus originated in the wet markets of Wuhan — is important to understanding and preventing future outbreaks. But some vocal skeptics — politicians, media pundits and a few scientists — don't believe the virus jumped from animals to humans. They think Chinese scientists let the virus loose somehow. L.A. Times staff writer James Rainey takes over the mic to explain why it’s a theory that just won’t go away.

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