NIH scientist proposed engineering coronavirus to be more infectious weeks before pandemic, emails show
NIH virologist Vincent Munster emailed his postdoc on Oct. 6, 2019, proposing to engineer a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus spike protein to “enhance infectivity.”
The proposed modification matches the central genetic feature cited by lab-leak proponents as evidence SARS-CoV-2 did not arise naturally.
Munster’s lab also solicited and received unpublished bat coronavirus spike sequences from the U.S.-funded PREDICT program months before the pandemic.
The furin site Munster suggested differs from the one found in SARS-CoV-2, which has a “suboptimal” motif researchers say would be illogical for an engineered virus.
Munster was indicted in 2026 for smuggling mpox virus samples into the U.S. without proper documentation.
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