Lab leak? Bioweapon? Wet market? Two years after a new coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, the world still knows very little about the origins of the virus, named SARS-CoV-2 scientifically. Where it came from, and how it first infected humans, are questions that have still not been answered conclusively. “Viral,” a new book from Harper Collins, examines the start of this pandemic, and why so much is still unknown. Scientist Alina Chan of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Matt Ridley, a PhD zoologist and science writer, explore three possibilities, including an accidental release of the virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The authors presented their findings in a recent virtual discussion with John Walters, president of the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank. What emerges is a damning indictment of global health and science institutions, and a story of two years of failure to properly …