Scott Gottlieb says COVID-19 origin debate shows U.S. needs to treat public health as national security matter

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Sunday addressed the debate over COVID-19 origin theories, telling CBS News' John Dickerson why he believes it's important to fully investigate whether the coronavirus may have spread following an accidental leak from a lab in Wuhan, China (rather than jumping from an animal host in a natural environment).

Gottlieb — who noted that lab leaks are not entirely uncommon, whether in China or the United States — said it's "important to understand what the possibility is that this came out of a lab so we could focus more international attention on trying to get better inventories around these labs, what they're doing, better security, make sure they're properly built."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.