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Poll: Strong majority of voters believe it 'likely' that COVID-19 was created in a lab

Fewer than one-quarter believe otherwise.

Published: February 9, 2021 11:43am

Updated: February 9, 2021 3:13pm

A strong majority of U.S. voters believe COVID-19 was likely manufactured in a lab, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

Sixty-five percent of respondents believed it is "somewhat" or "very" likely" that the pandemic coronavirus emerged from a "bio research lab."

Just 21% of voters doubted such a possibility. The remaining 14% were unsure. 

The responses come as a United Nations-backed group of researchers concludes its investigation into the originals of the coronavirus. That investigation concluded it's unlikely that the virus had escaped from a Chinese infectious disease laboratory just a few miles from the alleged first outbreak of the disease.

The editorial board of the Washington Post, meanwhile, last week argued that investigators should be allowed to investigate the Wuhan Institute of Virology, stating that the lab should "provide all records regarding bat samples, viruses and sequences, with verified information provenance" to ensure that the virus did not emerge from there. 

The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from Feb. 4-6, 2021.

Click here to see the poll's cross-demographic tabulations.

Click here to see the poll's methodology and sample demographics.

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