Shi Zhengli, a virologist who works at a state lab in Wuhan, China, has denied speculation that the virus that led to the deadly pandemic had leaked from her institute.
"I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist," she told The New York Times, rejecting the allegations as baseless.
Though the lab leak theory had been dismissed as a conspiracy theory last year, renewed interest by the Biden administration in investigating the origins of COVID has led to new questions.