Do you trust what government says on COVID origins? What Americans said in poll

Brendan Rascius, The Charlotte Observer on May 29, 2025

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Most Americans are skeptical of the government’s stance on the emergence of COVID-19, according to new polling.

In the latest YouGov/Economist survey, 60% of respondents said they have no or little trust in “what the U.S. government says about the origins of COVID-19.” In contrast, 39% said they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust.

Doubts about the official government narrative were widespread across the political spectrum, with 55% of Democrats, 60% of Republicans and 66% of independents expressing little or no trust in it.

The poll — which sampled 1,660 U.S. adults May 23 to 26 — also asked respondents whether they believe the virus originated in a laboratory in China.

A majority, 57%, said this is definitely or probably true, while just 17% said it is definitely or probably false. Twenty-five percent were not sure.

On this question, there were huge partisan differences.

Less than half of Democrats, 40%, said COVID-19 definitely or likely came from a Chinese lab. Meanwhile more than twice as many Republicans, 81%, and 51% of independents said the same.

The poll — which has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points — comes after years of debate about the exact origins of COVID-19, which began spreading globally in late 2019, according to the World Health Organization.

More than 1.2 million Americans’ deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 since January 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. intelligence community has postulated two origin theories as plausible: that the virus spread to humans through “natural exposure to an infected animal” or through “a laboratory-associated incident.” Agencies also reached a consensus that it likely arose in Wuhan, China, and that it was not created as a bioweapon.

However, the White House has recently taken a more definitive stance. In April, President Donald Trump’s administration launched a website that said “the true origins of COVID-19” are that it came from a Chinese laboratory. It also accused former President Joe Biden’s administration of demonizing “disfavored narratives, such as the lab leak theory.”

In response, Chinese officials have claimed that COVID-19 could have originated in the United States.

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