Madrid embraces “Wuhan lab” conspiracy, ends mask mandate Numerous editorials have appeared in the Spanish media in recent weeks giving credence to the lie that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. This comes after US President Joe Biden publicly legitimised the conspiracy at the end of May and gave the US security services 90 days to investigate it. On 28 May, El País, which is aligned with the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE), published an editorial entitled “Clarifying the origin of the coronavirus.” Referring to the US investigation, they stated: “What had from time to time surfaced as a mere conspiracy theory … is now expressed, for the first time, as a possible explanation, from the knowledge that three scientists at [the Wuhan] laboratory could have contracted Covid in autumn 2019, before the disease was announced.