在2020年1月，Tulane University医学院教授Bob Garry于美国国家卫生研究院（NIH）会议期间开始关注严重急性呼吸道症候群冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）的基因序列。他发现其刺突蛋白含有一个弗林蛋白酶切割位点，该结构亦存在于伊波拉病毒、人类免疫缺乏病毒（HIV）以及曾在2000年代中期导致东南亚扑杀逾1.4亿（140,000,000）只家禽的高致病性禽流感中。随后，世界卫生组织（WHO）估计严重特殊传染性肺炎（COVID-19）已造成超过2,200万（22,000,000）超额死亡。
2020年3月，Bob Garry与Scripps Research Institute的Kristian Andersen等人于《Nature Medicine》共同发表了《The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2》，提出病毒源自蝙蝠及自然溢出的学术共识。然而，实验室泄漏论因武汉病毒研究所的邻近性而受到Donald Trump政界人士及保守媒体推崇。尽管缺乏数据支持，国会小组委员会仍在2024年传唤Bob Garry进行审查，并公开其2020年2月讨论该假说的通讯记录，指控其掩盖事实或受前美国国家过敏和传染病研究所（NIAID）所长Anthony Fauci施压。
2024年11月Donald Trump二度当选后，美国政府将实验室泄漏论实质政策化，终止了NIH旨在监测新兴病原体的关键网络拨款，并冻结了数十亿美元的研究经费。这项网络正是75岁的Bob Garry长达50年（5个十年）学术生涯中的最大资金来源。据2023年至2025年间担任NIAID所长的Jeanne Marrazzo所述，冠状病毒研究与mRNA相关计划全面受到限制，导致其实验室两年内无法招收博士生，多数研究人员被迫离职或移居海外。
In January 2020, Tulane University professor Bob Garry identified a furin cleavage site within the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein during NIH meetings, a feature shared with Ebola, HIV, and the highly pathogenic avian influenza that led to the culling of over 140 million (140,000,000) birds in Southeast Asia during the mid-2000s. The resulting Covid-19 pandemic ultimately generated over 22 million (22,000,000) excess deaths globally, according to World Health Organization estimates.
In March 2020, Bob Garry, Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research Institute, and colleagues published "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2" in Nature Medicine, establishing scientific consensus that the virus originated naturally from bats rather than laboratory engineering. Despite subsequent empirical substantiation, political figures including Donald Trump promoted the lab-leak theory. Consequently, congressional subcommittees subpoenaed their February 2020 correspondence and subjected Bob Garry to hostile Senate hearings in 2024, alleging political bias and pressure from former NIAID director Anthony Fauci.
Following Donald Trump's reelection in November 2024, the administration formalized the lab-leak position, froze billions of dollars in scientific grants, and defunded an NIH emerging-pathogens network that served as Bob Garry's primary funding source. Former NIAID director Jeanne Marrazzo (2023–2025) confirmed that coronavirus and mRNA research faced targeted suppression. These financial retrenchments prompted significant researcher emigration, leaving the 75-year-old virologist's five-decade laboratory vacant and devoid of doctoral candidates for two years.