or the voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate. just four days later, five american british and australian researchers who were all on thad preliminary findings that abandoned their early private beliefs that covid was likely the result of a laboratory leak. it s unclear what new evidence prompted such a drastic 180, but private communications show the various drafts of their report are sent to fauci and collins for editing and approval. the records do not reveal if they, in fact, edited the new version. february 16th, the first public draft is published online. weeks later, a final version of that report is posted, again, a total reversal of what those virologists wrote in private emails earlier. march 17th, in nature medicine, our analysis clearly shows that covid is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus. but that was not enough to tamp down what multiple sources