Scientists take a stand against “Wuhan lab” witch-hunt The open embrace by the US media of the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has incited a right-wing campaign against scientists researching the origin of the pandemic. Scientists who have for years warned about the dangers posed by infectious diseases and have sought to defend society from a raging pandemic are being scapegoated in a vicious witch-hunt. But leading scientists, under relentless and slanderous attack not only by the far-right gutter press but by the “mainstream” media, have taken a courageous and principled stand, defending science, international collaboration, and the fight to save lives in the ongoing pandemic.