Scientist Backing Probe Into Wuhan Lab: Some Peers Delayed Probing Lab Theory Because They Didn’t Want ‘To Be Associated With Trump’ [UPDATED]

Updated: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated that scientist Alina Chan was one of the scientists that did not back looking into the possibility that the coronavirus escaped a lab during the early days of the pandemic due to political reasons. Chan stated on social media that she was talking about her peers and was not referring to herself, which NBC News did not state in its original report. This article has been updated to show Chan’s well documented history of urging scientists from the early days of the pandemic to take seriously the possibility that the coronavirus escaped from a lab. 

A scientist that signed onto a letter recently backing a probe in the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology said in an interview this week that some scientists did not come forward sooner to back the possibility that the pandemic originated in a lab because they did not want “to be associated with Trump.”