Did Covid-19 leak from a lab?

08/18/23 • 25 min

4 Listeners

Covid is back in the news - there is a new mutation of Omicron which is potentially more infectious than the last.

Some are sounding the alarm. We talk about whether you should be worried (spoiler -probably not). But while it's in the news we thought we'd examine a question long lurking at the sidelines of the Covid news story - where did it come from?

Is the lab leak theory increasingly credible? Plenty in Washington, including big elements of the Biden administration think so. And if it is - why are we not talking about it? What might be the biggest story of our time?

Lewis talks to a leading expert who sits on SAGE and a journalist who has done the running on the story from the very beginning.

Editor: Tom Hughes

Producers: Rory Symon and Alex Barnett

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Producer: Will Gibson-Smith

Covid is back in the news - there is a new mutation of Omicron which is potentially more infectious than the last.

Lewis talks to a leading expert who sits on SAGE and a journalist who has done the running on the story from the very beginning.

Editor: Tom Hughes

Producers: Rory Symon and Alex Barnett

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Producer: Will Gibson-Smith

Previous Episode

Are ministers right to say: don't worry too much about exam results?

It's A-level results day and the message from the Education Secretary is to urge students not to worry too much about the results, that no-one will ask about them in 10 years' time.

The PM has also said that there are plenty of other options available to those who didn't get the grades they need. But is this really the message for ministers to send to kids who have been studying for these things for years?

And would they be saying the same to their own kids? We also analyse whether this was the year to revert to a 2019 marking system, with a generation still deeply affected by the pandemic.

Jon and Lewis also discuss the life and broadcasting legacy of chat show king Michael Parkinson who has died at the age of 88. He invented the chat show format for UK television. We talk through the changes in TV which have taken place over the last half century and why we won't see Parky's like again.

Editor: Tom Hughes

Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus

Producer: Laura FitzPatrick

Planning: Alex Barnett

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Will Gibson-Smith & Rory Symon

Next Episode

Should Lucy Letby have been made to go to court?

Lucy Letby has been given a whole life order for her crimes. She joins only a small group of prisoners to be given a sentence so severe that they can never be considered for parole. But she wasn't in court today to hear it for herself. She chose not to appear, much to the victims' families fury.

The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition want the law to be changed to force criminals to face their days of reckoning in person. It sounds simple - but is it? Lewis discusses with a former Old Bailey judge and a victim of the Manchester Arena Attacks whose own cowardly perpetrator also refused to confront the court.

And after the Lionesses' near miss in Sydney we ask why politicians always sound so weird when talking about football. We talk to the politico's politico and genuine football obsessive, Lord Danny Finkelstein.

Editor: Tom Hughes

Producer: Laura FitzPatrick

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Producer: Will Gibson-Smith