The Ronald Reagan Institute's 2021 National Defense Survey posed several questions related to China and its position concerning the U.S., including one regarding the origins of COVID-19.
"When asked about the theory that the coronavirus was developed by scientists working at a lab in Wuhan and accidentally leaked, and that the Chinese government then lied about it, nearly three quarters (72%) of Americans believe it is likely, with 42% saying it is very likely," a report by the Reagan Institute said, discussing the poll results.
The survey shows that most participants believe the pandemic leaked from a Chinese lab, but majorities of those from both parties and independents felt the same way. Of Republicans polled, 86% believed it was likely that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab, while 61% of Democrats and 67% of independents agreed.
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Majorities of all three groups agreed that China should face the consequences if it is determined that it did cover up a lab leak.
"If the theory was proven, 76% of Americans think China should pay reparations to other nations as a penalty, including 82% of Republicans and 72% of both Independents and Democrats," the Reagan Institute announced.
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Another pandemic-related question had to do with the public trust of health officials. Almost half did not say they had faith in them.
"Despite their prominence throughout the vaccination phase of the pandemic, only 56% of Americans report having a great deal or some confidence in public health officials, which is down 10 points since February," announced the organization's report.
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This comes when 81% of those polled are still worried about pandemics, and 78% fear biological attacks on U.S. soil.
In September, scientists found Banal-52, a coronavirus found in Lao bats, which shares 96.8 percent of its genome with Sars-Cov-2.
The striking similarity between the two coronaviruses led scientists to theorize that the Lao bat strain could have somehow given rise to Sars-Cov-2.
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Though there was one obvious problem: how could a virus originating in bats living in Laos spark an outbreak in Wuhan over 1000 miles away?
That puzzle might now have been solved, as leaked emails between EcoHealth Alliance and U.S. government funders reveal viral samples from Lao bats were being collected and sent for study in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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The virus RaTG13, strikingly similar genetically to Sars-Cov-2, was discovered in a horseshoe bat in a mineshaft in Yunnan.
Records of the genetic sequences collected from both Yunnan and Laos were removed from an online database at the Wuhan institute in September 2019, leaving experts in the dark about the strains that had been examined there.
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