All language subtitles for Conspiracies.and.Coverups.S01E04.The.Great.COVID.Conspiracy.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Right out of that hole.

All these other holes are
sample ports, so we can measure

the air quality in real time.
See you in a few minutes.

Let's face it, there are so
many government conspiracies,

it can be hard to tell what's
real and what's not.

My name is Andrew Bustamante
and I am a former

covert CIA intelligence officer.

And I'm going to pressure test
the most sensational

ripped-from-the-headlines
conspiracy theories out there

to help you separate fact
from fiction.

March 2020.

The world shuts down
almost overnight.

Like a sci-fi movie, except
no one's leaving the theater.

Body bags, empty
streets, isolation.

Tonight, the stark new
coronavirus warning,

The WHO saying word--
a new and dangerous phase

in the pandemic
is accelorating.

As the virus spread,
so did questions

about where it came from.

Was it nature?

An animal virus that made
the leap to humans?

A lab leak?
A bioweapon?

Or part of a nefarious
planned scheme?

On this episode,
I'll be using CIA tradecraft,

up-to-the-minute political
insights, real-world demos,

and interviews with key experts
to test scientific claims...

Was this let out on purpose
or by accident?

...expose potential motives...

China is exporting vaccines

and personal protective
equipment around the world.

It was a huge win
for Beijing.

...and pressure test
fringe theories...

I have to say this--
don't try this at home.

...to investigate
where COVID-19,

the deadliest pandemic in
the past 100 years,

actually came from.

And what
I end up discovering...

is shocking.

That is absolutely terrifying
to hear you say that.

The COVID-19 pandemic
may be over,

but the fallout sure isn't.

A recent poll shows that
the majority of Americans

believe that COVID split
our country in two.

Why?
Because people didn't trust

the information
they were getting,

and the origin story
became one of

the biggest flashpoints
of distrust.

The initial explanation was
that the virus originated in

animals and jumped to humans.

It's a process called
natural spillover.

And since many of the first
COVID 19 patients were traced

to a wet market
in Wuhan, China,

where live exotic animals
were sold for meat,

many scientists believe this is
where the pandemic started.

That virus was brought there
with those live animals

and it spilled over.

Let's start by looking at what
a wet market actually is.

It sounds dark and exotic,
but the idea is simple.

It's an open-air market that is
called "wet" because everything

in it needs water.

Washing, rinsing,
keeping things cold.

But somewhere along the way,
"wet market" became shorthand

for a place full of strange
animals and stranger tastes.

The perspective shifts only
when you zoom in a darker time

in a specific slice of
southern China.

From 1959 to 1961,
China went through one of

the worst famines in history.

A combination of
failed government policies

and environmental pressures

left tens of millions of
people dead.

In the decades that followed,
food security became

a national priority.

Beginning in the late 1970s,
China introduced market reforms

that allowed farmers more
control over what

they produced and sold.

Over time, that shift helped
fuel a growing industry in

animal farming,
including the breeding and sale

of wild species.

By the 2000s, some of these
animals were classified as

agricultural products and sold
in markets across China,

bringing humans into closer
contact with wildlife

than ever before.

At CIA, we assess theories
based on a level of

probability, based on
the reliability of the source

and the reliability
of the information.

I'm going to use
this probability matrix

throughout my investigation to
help us assess

each theory
as we explore.

So, with natural spillover
being a possibility,

how do we know if COVID really
did come from nature?

We don't just ask what's
possible, we ask what

the evidence supports.

So what does the evidence from
Wuhan actually tell us?

To dig into the question,
I'm reaching out to

Lia Eustachewich, managing news
editor at the New York Post,

because in 2020,
she and her team reported on

intriguing from Harvard
University that injects doubt

into the spillover theory.

Lia, we all know the commonly
accepted theory of the origin

of COVID-19-- what happened to
that wet market

after Chinese authorities
basically told the world

it was the cause
of COVID?

It was shut down.
So it all gave credence

to this notion that
the wet market

was ground zero for COVID.

How did the World Health
Organization

handle it at the start?

They did send a team over
pretty early on when we first

learned that COVID
was spreading.

But they were very in what
they could investigate.

They were unable to talk to
the right people, you know,

go into the market.

They were stymied by
the Chinese authorities.

They were very limited in what
they could find.

What I'd like to do is
actually build a timeline

and see if that doesn't paint
a picture for us.

- Yep.
- All right.

You were saying that everything
started in December of 2019,

Chinese authorities reporting
pneumonia of unknown cause.

Correct-- it was known as
"novel coronavirus"

at the time.

And January 11th is when China
reported its first death.

Yes, and then January 13th,
it finds its way to Thailand.

And January 15th, to Japan.

By January 20th, 21st,
it looks like that's when

the World Health Organization
first visited Wuhan.

Right.
And this also coincided with

the first case being confirmed
in the United States,

in Washington state.

In March,
it's a pandemic officially

declared by the World
Health Organization.

And then, shutdowns start
happening all over the world.

Tell me about the satellite
images you found

and the other story they tell.

This report came out in
June 2020.

Harvard researchers analyzed
this satellite data from

the hospital parking lots
in Wuhan, and it clearly showed

that there was an uptick
in people coming in and out of

the hospitals much earlier
than Chinese authorities said.

So there is that six-month
gap of when the public first

started learning about COVID

to when symptoms really started
in China.

After it escaped,
one-and-a-half months,

China did not put any
restrictions whatsoever,

and by that, China allowed
the virus to spread.

Hang on.

Could it just be
an early flu season?

There would have to be other
data besides just an uptick in

hospital traffic data.
- Correct.

At the same time,
there's an increase in searches

from the Wuhan area for COVID
symptoms, cough, and diarrhea.

And we're seeing now there's
an inconsistency when the first

reports were coming in to
the hospitals in Wuhan versus

when the public was made aware
of the existence of

a new virus.
- Correct.

When people tried to discuss
an alternate theory of

where COVID came from,
they were cast aside.

They were, you know,
told they were

conspiracy theorists.
They were treated as pariahs.

And I feel like the divisiveness
could have been mitigated

if we had gotten
clear answers from the get-go.

It also suggests why there
have been so many conspiracies

that have grown out of
the coronavirus pandemic.

Absolutely--
I think when people

don't get straight answers,
they fill those gaps themselves

and they come up with
other theories.

Lia's reporting raises
some real questions about

the timeline and about how much
we were told.

But inconsistencies don't tell
me where the virus came from.

To study that, I need to
understand how a virus like

this actually jumps from
animals to humans.

I have to test the spillover
theory for myself.

So I've come here to the
Rocky Mountain Wildlife Center

to put myself in the zone where
viruses can jump from animals

to humans and see just how
probable that risk is.

First, we have to make sure
we are fully, from head-to-toe,

suited up in protective gear.

- Let's do it.
- All right.

So we're going to get you
some gloves,

a gown, and a mask.
- OK.

We, of course, can get sick
from our patients through mucus

The owl is
the informal mascot

for intelligence services
worldwide.

So it's really exciting to me
that I get to handle

a wild owl.

The Wildlife Center confirmed
something important.

Spillover from animals that
can carry dangerous viruses,

even owls and bird flu,

isn't rare-- it's common.

A crowded market,
infected wildlife,

and sloppy handlers are very
much ground-zero

for a pandemic.

But if COVID-19 was a natural
outbreak, what explains

the contradictions
in the timeline?

And why was the official
narrative locked down so fast?

So my next question in this
investigation is this.

If this didn't happen in
the wild,

where else could it
have started?

When you look at Wuhan,
just across the river 10 miles

from the wet market,
what do you find there?

It's almost beyond belief.

2
As soon as the world learned of
a new virus in Wuhan,

the Chinese government claimed
it came from wild animals at

the wet market and spilled
into humans.

But the outbreak happened in
the in the same city as

the highly secure
Wuhan Institute of Virology,

where bat coronaviruses had
been studied for years.

That's a coincidence
that's too hard to ignore.

It fueled speculation that
perhaps COVID-19 had leaked

from a lab where nothing was
supposed to ever escape.

But is such a scenario
even possible?

Most people don't realize this,
but in 1977, a strain of

influenza known as
the Russian flu

spread around the world.

Some scientists believe it may
have originated from

a lab accident after
a version of the virus

thought to be extinct
suddenly reappeared.

A decade earlier,
a deadly virus later named

Marburg infected lab workers
handling imported monkeys.

Seven people died.

And in the early 2000s,
the SARS virus,

a close relative of COVID-19,
escaped from labs

multiple times,
infecting researchers

and triggering new outbreaks.

These incidents are rare,
but they're real.

So the question isn't just,
could a virus leak from a lab?

It's, how probable is it today?

So I am here at
the Aerobiology Laboratory

at the University of
Colorado in Boulder

to learn how viruses are
safely contained.

And more importantly,
if it gives us any clues to

the reality of a Wuhan lab leak
of COVID-19.

What kind of a lab is this?

Most of our mission is to kill
bad things in the air

that you breathe.

Our lab is the seatbelt
for lungs.

So we're about to go into
an active lab.

Kindergarten rule, keep
your hands to yourself.

What we grow in our lab is
pretty much a rogue's gallery

of the things that make us
and animals sick.

Flu, whooping cough,
different flavors of

tuberculosis, and we store
these cryogenically.

So myself or any of
our researchers

can pull it out.

We've got vials and vials of
anything that you want.

E. coli, SARS-CoV-2,
hepatitis virus.

Wow!
Unbelievable!

Within a week, I can have live
virus, live bacteria,

live fungi, whatever you want.

That'll give you pneumonia if
you inhale it.

- Oh, my gosh!
This is so crazy.
- Yeah.

Everything about this
door says...

Don't go in.

It says
don't go in, absolutely.

- Right.
- But we're going in.

- ... Yeah.
- I'm excited.

OK, nervous, but excited.

What is the danger of
the experiment that we're

running right now?
- The danger is you get sick.

- OK.
- OK?

With this first task, I want to
experience how viruses are

handled and how a dangerous
spill could occur.

Take a big breath.
Take your coronavirus,

open it up, and pour her
into the trough.

Now the hands of
a surgeon come in.

- Ooh...
- You're gonna pick up eight of
those, push down

until they're kind of secured
in a row.

That takes a little practice.

Eh...

Now you're gonna go over,
pick up your virus,

and now you're gonna add them
to the brain cells.

Precision, care,
and attention to detail.

Dr. Hernandez wasn't kidding.
This takes surgical precision.

One small slip and I could
spill a contagious virus.

This lab has strict
containment protocols with

multiple safeguards to prevent
anything from escaping.

At CIA, we'd consider
the probability of

an accidental leak here as
extremely low.

But leaks can and do happen
if rules aren't followed.

OK, audio check.
Mark.

Good copy, Dr. Hernandez.

For a first-hand demonstration

of how containment protocols
work and air is cleaned,

I'm about to do
something crazy.

I'm putting myself in a room
where an airborne virus is

actively circulating.

If COVID came from a lab,

it likely spread
through the air.

So to test that idea, I need to
understand how airborne viruses

behave and how easily they can
escape containment.

So I'm going into
an aerosol chamber.

Yes, sir.

The purpose of these
experiments is to figure out

how long airborne pathogens
like flu, coronavirus,

RSV survive in the air in
classrooms and offices

and so on.

And then how do we kill it
without harming us?

What do I need to do to do
this safely?

Well, let's get you suited up.

How are you feeling in there?

So I'm going to take
you in the chamber.

You'll see
a little pink cloud come in.

Right out of that hole.
See you in a few minutes.

Three, two, one--
here she comes.

And now it's starting to
take off.

Yeah.

So, Andy, the instrumentation is
telling us

we've got quite a bit of
particles in there.

We're going to start
the filters now.

There's two filters
on the floor

to remove
the aerosol.

One last intervention
we want to engage in--

it's right above your head.

That's a UV light that'll
inactivate any virus that's in

the air pretty rapidly,
and it's safe for

skin and eyes.

- Wow.
- How was the ride?

Wow.
Wow.

So this helps to tell us what

the total biological load in
the air is.

A biological load is
essentially germs.

Yeah-- and you actually
started up at about 4,000.

And then within about two
minutes, that HEPA filter in

there with you dropped
the particles down by 75%.

- So HEPA filters--
- In just two minutes.

In just two minutes.

Seeing the process up close
makes it clear that labs like

this are designed to
contain viruses.

But even the best systems
rely on people,

and people make mistakes.

What made coronavirus so
different than some of

the other outbreaks that have
happened in our generation?

If you remember the term
about the coronavirus,

"novel" coronavirus, there was
something about

the biochemistry of that little
floating particle that

most people
had never seen before.

And that's where the issue
comes to,

hey, was this engineered?

Was this let out on purpose
or by accident as part of

the genetic
engineering process?

And we don't have the answer to
those questions yet.

Though a lab leak is
possible, what I saw suggests

the protocols in Wuhan wouldn't
be all that different from

the ones at this lab.

So if I can't prove a leak from
the outside, maybe I need to

look at the virus itself.

Dr. Hernandez left me with
an intriguing thread to follow.

COVID-19 was a virus with
novel biochemistry.

The question is, are those
features we'd expect to see

in nature, or do they point to
something else?

2
Dr. Hernandez pointed me to
something I can't ignore,

COVID-19's
unusual biochemistry.

Maybe the virus itself might
hold clues about

where it came from.

So I want to talk to molecular
biologist Dr. Alina Chan.

With a background in medical
genetics and vector

engineering, Dr. Chan has
written a book exploring

the origins of COVID-19.

So I've been in a BSL-2 lab,
and the scientist that

hosted me specifically said...
- Mm-hmm.

...there's an element inside
the SARS-CoV-2 virus

that they hadn't seen before.

What is that?
And can it tell us something

about where COVID-19
came from?

SARS-CoV-2 is unique amongst
all SARS-like viruses.

It has a special feature called
a furin cleavage site.

And this feature is what makes
it really effective at

infecting human cells.

In 2018, the Wuhan scientists,
together with

their U.S. partners, were trying
to test different mutations,

and they had plans to put these
furin cleavage sites into

SARS-like viruses.

It was intended at predicting
and preventing pandemics.

And there's this really
striking coincidence, of all of

the viruses in the world,

this SARS-CoV-2 virus with
the unique fearing cleavage site

that appeared in Wuhan.

I mean, when I look at this
through a lens of probability,

the coincidence is
glaringly strong.

But strong coincidences can
point to patterns or pull

you to conclusions that aren't
fully supported yet.

These plans were leaked

from inside
the U.S. government in 2021.

In March 2020,
influential scientists said

that there was no plausible lab
origin scenario for COVID 19.

But since then,

the private emails and messages
of these scientists

have been subpoenaed.

And now we see that they were
actually looking at

a lab origin scenario.

When you start talking about
the likelihood that it came

from a lab, what did that do to
you and your reputation?

Yeah, people were attacking us,

saying that we were
conspiracy theorists.

I received many very
unpleasant tweets.

But many top viroligists started
sending me mail saying that

we agree with you, but none of
them made their stance public

because the harm to
their reputation

can be really strong.

But does that exclude
the possibility of

natural spillover?

No-- the favorite
natural origin hypothesis,

which cannot be
ruled out, is that the bats

down in the southern regions

infected an intermediate host,
so some other kind of animal,

or infected a person in Wuhan
and caused an outbreak there.

Why do you think so many
conspiracy theories still

surround the origin of
COVID-19?

20 million people died
because of COVID 19.

How can you just brush
that aside?

People need to know the truth.

In 2023, there was already
a COVID Origins Act that was

passed unanimously saying
declassify the data linking

the Wuhan lab to the origin of
COVID 19.

But the intelligence community
over two administrations

refused to declassify the data.

I am, I'm kind of overwhelmed.

I'm gonna turn off my camera
for a second.

- Yep.
- OK.

I am on the verge of tears.

Hearing how avoidable this
could have been,

and there are
20 million dead people.

But we're not any safer.

And I was on the side that kept
secrets like this.

And the people who have been
crying "conspiracy,"

they're closer to right than
they are to wrong on this.

Thank you.
I just needed a second to

myself, Alina, to kind of...

process what you're
talking about.

And a lot of what you were
saying was new information

and emotional for me.

I can't thank you enough for
the work that you've done.

Thank you, Andy.

Dr. Chan makes a compelling
case for the lab leak theory.

But compelling doesn't
mean conclusive.

It means there are still
questions that

haven't been answered.

Many continue to stand by
the natural spillover theory to

explain where COVID came from.

Three evolutionary biologists,
Michael Worobey, Chris Andersen,

and Eddie Holmes--
they go through all the data.

Could not be clearer.

Animal to human spillover event
that occurred

in the western section of
the Wunan market.

So why is it that two-thirds of
the American public think it

was a lab leak?

Again, I think it's easier to
conceive that, and it's nice to

be able to blame somebody.
And so it became political.

And let's not forget,
scientists around the world

have been researching
the virus, and they mostly

agree that it could have come
from natural origins.

But there's catch,
because the sequences that

scientists are working from

have largely been controlled
by China.

These aren't coming from
independent sources that have

collected samples from Wuhan
or early areas of infection.

So while scientists may be in
agreement, they are in

agreement on
limited information.

And anytime there is
missing data,

there's always room
for doubt.

And that got people wondering
if the virus's origin story was

a lot darker.

Could COVID-19 be a product of
biological weapons research?

2
I've looked at the possibility
that COVID came from nature,

and I've tested how an accident
inside a lab could happen.

But there's one more
possibility I need to consider.

What if it wasn't
an accident at all?

In the ongoing quest
for geopolitical dominance,

global superpowers go to great
lengths to gain an edge.

China follows a strategy called
civil-military fusion,

and the idea is pretty simple.

Use science and technology
to offset

the West's military power.

So understanding that science
is central to China's military

ambitions, does that include
biological weapons research?

Could COVID-19 be a product of
this military project?

It's a theory that took hold
early on in the pandemic,

especially among
China's rivals like India.

Was the Wuhan
virus a bioweapon?

Was the aim to create
the deadliest coronavirus ever?

And with China determined to
be the only superpower in all

of Asia, it's not that
far-fetched of an idea.

So I've invited China expert
Henrietta Levin,

a former senior
U.S. official

at the State Department
and current senior fellow

at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies,

to discuss
that question.

Could China have intentionally
created a biological weapon

that led to the release
of COVID?

The Chinese Communist Party is
fundamentally about control

over everything that happens
in the country.

China fears instability in
China more than anything else.

And you can see even in
the Chinese government's

response to COVID,
the amount

of societal control
was incredible.

I mean, whether you could leave
your house was dependent on

what a government-sponsored app
told you you could do.

You would see drones coming up
to your window.

And this really shocked a lot
of Chinese citizens.

So COVID actually brought
organized protests...

...onto the street in China
for the first time

in years and years.

That alone would say to me that

COVID is not working out
for China.

Were there benefits
that might suggest that China

deliberately released COVID?

Well, remember
early in the pandemic,

Italy was hit very hard.
- Yes.

China made
a pretty big show of donating

medical equipment to Italy.

So you saw a huge outpouring
of gratitude.

Italy is a G7 country, so this
was a pretty big political

success for Beijing.

And later in the pandemic,
there's a critical six-month

period where China is exporting
massive amounts of vaccines

and personal protective
equipment around the world.

- Health diplomacy.
- Yes.

And the U.S. isn't sharing
vaccines with anyone.

A huge win for China's
popularity in the global south.

Now, did they take advantage
of a crisis to try

and bolster influence?
Yes.

But just the chaos inside of
China that was unleashed by

this virus is something Beijing
would never have intended.

It would seem seems silly to
risk losing it all

because of
a biological weapons effort.

Based on what we know,
it doesn't appear that COVID 19

fits the description of
a biological weapon.

But ruling that out doesn't
end the investigation.

It just shifts the question.

If this wasn't about military
power, what else

could have motivated it?

One answer some people
point to is money.

Whoever makes
the first successful

COVID-19 vaccine
also stands to make a fortune.

We are talking billions of
dollars in revenue.

Pfizer alone is set to make
between $59 and $61 billion in

profits this year, $15 billion
of which would be from

their COVID-19 vaccine alone.

I'm sorry,
I just hallucinated.

What?

There's nothing unusual about
companies making money from

a global medical breakthrough.

But when the stakes are this
high and the profits this big,

it can start to
raise questions.

And in a moment already defined
by fear and uncertainty,

those questions can quickly
turn into something else.

As coronavirus spread
and the death toll mounted,

the fear and paranoia rose
right along with it.

And conspiracies started to pop
up that suggested that maybe

the vaccine
wasn't a vaccine at all.

Maybe it was about tracking
the population and expanding

government control.

In that version of events,
the pandemic itself

wasn't an accident.
It was the setup.

How probable is such an idea?

To find out, I'm on my way now
to meet with somebody who found

themselves in the center of
that very conspiracy.

Biohacker Emil Graafstra runs
a medically safe RFID implant

company using radio wave
technology for

wireless identification
and authentication.

- I've got you at 1153 here.
- OK-- I'll pay with tap.

- That's crazy.
- That is some
cyborg [bleep], dude.

Did it light up under
your skin?

Yeah, I kind of forget
where it's at.

So when I use it for pass keys
on my phone, as I get closer,

it lights up.

When did you start hearing
about the connection between

COVID and RFID?

That started
almost immediately.

There was a company backed by
Bill Gates manufacturing these

syringes that had RFID
in the syringe.

And the purpose of that is to
be able to track dosing

and usage distribution like
a parcel tracking.

But tracking in terms of like
real-time locating on a map,

no, that's not what it
was doing.

It was tracking
the supply chain.

But people were like,
Bill Gates,

microchips, you know,
and it all fits together.

It's almost hard to
deny this stuff because it's so

stupid or strange.

It's really just the kind of
combination of

a misunderstanding
about the technology.

And, you know, there were
people trying to

churn up this distrust.

And so anything
becomes possible.

So now people who were already
skeptical about being

vaccinated started thinking it
has some nefarious intent.

And they'll kill millions,
as they already have

with their vaccines.

Everywhere I go, everything is
trying to connect to me,

man, like
Bluetooth connectivity.

Does the COVID-19 vaccine
make you magnetic?

It is magnetic there.

It really started to be
a brewing ground

for conspiracy.

So I want to dig into this
technology with you deeper.

Yeah.

And I don't think that doing
it in a public restaurant is

gonna make anybody
very comfortable.

- No.
- Do you mind taking a ride
with me?

- OK, sure.
- Let's do it.

2
All right, man.
Welcome to my little abode.

All right.

I've invited biohacker
Emil Graafstra to show me

his RFID implant toolkit.

Now that we're in the final
stages of our investigation,

I want to test one of the most
interesting and out-there

conspiracies and see for myself
if a chip can really be

injected into our bodies
through a vaccine.

So this is our full
actual kit.

This little needle is
the actual

cylindrical-shaped implant.
- So that's not a little needle.

I could make spaghetti
with that.

Yeah, you could, yeah.

But this is the size
that's required to fit

the technology inside.

Inversely, we have something
that would be used for

a vaccination, right?

So this little guy is what
we all get with any vaccine

that we can think of, really.
- Yeah.

There is nothing
similar about those two.

- No comparison.
- That is a massive needle.

Yeah, it has to accommodate
that LED, so it's even bigger.

I have to say this,
don't try this at home.

Again, it's just under
the skin, so it's really only

a couple millimeters deep.

Deposited and then we remove

just like that.

Where would that go
on my hand?

Between the index and
some metacarpal bones.

And the fascia.

So, you can feel
there's a slight bump there.

Wow.

It's similar to this bump
in my hand here.

That's not right.

- I'm accustomed to working with
fobs that are about this size.
- Yeah.

So, what's in this chip
is encryption

and the authentication key that
was previously in

something like this.
- Yeah.

Both of these devices are just
there for authenticating that

the user is, in fact,

giving permission for this scan.

It's not the same thing as
a transmitter or any kind of

active tracking.
- Right.

The conspiracy around
the COVID vaccine was that

they may have been able to
plant something into a person's

body without their permission...
- Mm-hmm.

...so that could be tracked

24 hours a day,
seven days a week.

- Is that what this is?
- No.

The range of these things,
even your fobs and cards which

are very big in comparison,

they have extremely
limited range.

And that's because
there's no power source, right?

They derive power from
the magnetic field that

the reader generates.

So, this thing only reacts

when power is brought to it.
- Yep, exactly.

Because of that,
situations where governments

like China are monitoring
their entire populace,

they didn't go for this
because it's wholly impractical.

You wouldn't set up readers
every five feet that people

have to go up to
and actually present.

It doesn't work.

But also, putting a thing
in a person,

they can just take it out.

So, how would
you track a population?

If you're a nefarious actor,
you look at what's in

the environment and give them
a device that they keep charged

on their own,
which is their phone.

How I how ironic it is that
people who were reporting that

they believed they were being
tracked by the government were

reporting that on social media
using their phone.
- Yeah.

Which is the best
and easiest way

for the government to track you,

not some chip itself.
- Yeah.

When I look at the evidence in
front of me and I try to run it

up against the theory that
the COVID vaccine was really

carrying some sort of
microchip, you can literally

see how scientifically
difficult it would be to

really do.
- Yes, absolutely.

More than any other
investigation that we have run

together, this one has been
an absolute

emotional roller coaster.

And because it's been so
emotional, so controversial,

we have to turn to a CIA tool
and try to focus only

on the facts.

These are the four theories
we have to explore in this

matrix to try to define which
is the most likely explanation

and which are the least
likely explanations

for the origin of COVID.

We tracked down some very
credible experts.

And when you consider
the probability matrix,

you have to consider
the reliability of a source

before you consider
anything else.

So, let's jump in first with
the idea that COVID-19 was

somehow planned to
track the population.

We had a conversation with
somebody who literally knows

what it's like to plant
microchips under their skin.

And we quickly learned you can
can't hide a battery-powered

metal chip inside a vaccine.

So, we have to assign the idea
as low probability.

Which takes us to the idea that
there was a Chinese bioweapon.

We learn the purposeful release
of a secret bioweapon works

against all of
China's known intentions.

So, we have one of the lowest
possible likelihood scores.

So let's get into our third
theory, natural spillover.

We have some very strong
sources confirming that viruses

do go through a natural
evolutionary process that

ultimately makes them highly
infectious among human beings.

But multiple experts explain to
us that the virus had unique

biochemistry that suggests that

perhaps it didn't come
from nature.

While it is possible that
there's a natural explanation

for COVID, it may not be
the most probable.

Now our fourth
and final theory.

An accidental lab leak.

We learned of documentation
that showed that this specific

virus could be traced back to

research at the Wuhan Institute
of Virology.

Does that mean that we know for
certain it was a lab leak?

No, but we have multiple strong
sources with demonstrable

evidence that point to this
being a likely explanation.

And so when we look at
our probability matrix,

this is the best assessment of
where COVID-19 came from

based on public evidence today.

Nobody knows when or what
the next pandemic

will look like, but we all have
a to play in fighting it

early and fighting
the misinformation,

the distrust, and the lies
that can come with

during a global crisis.

COVID may have began as
a biological contagion,

but what followed--
the disconnection,

the doubt, the fear,
spread even faster than

the virus itself.

The good news is
we're not powerless.

The same tools
we use to track

the virus--
evidence, transparency,

curiosity, critical thinking,
can also help us

fight misinformation.

Because maybe the real lesson
behind COVID isn't just how

viruses spread,
but how important it is that

the truth spreads faster.