With genetic samples from the infamous Wuhan market, a new study makes the case that raccoon dogs are likely the animal that infected humans. Proponents of the lab leak theory are dubious.

Here are our editors' picks for stories from 2023 that we wish more people would see: from an elephant safari for teens to mating glaciers in Pakistan to a debate about Barbie's skin tone in India.

In 2020, Laura Gao hoped to visit her birthplace, Wuhan, to see her grandparents. The coronavirus caused her to cancel. They beat the virus and say they're now "walking backward" toward the sun.

In the funny and heartfelt coming-of-age graphic memoir 'Messy Roots,' artist Laura Gao unpacks their relationship with their Asianness, queerness and their ever-changing home city of Wuhan.

Two studies point to a link between the animals at the seafood market and the spread of SARS-CoV-2 — foreshadowed by photos from 2014 of raccoon dogs and birds. A top virus sleuth gives the details.

"If she does not make it past the coming winter, I hope the world will remember her as she once was," Zhang Zhan's brother said. She posted videos of Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic.

In an NPR interview, William Burns says he has appointed a senior officer who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden to head the investigation into ailments that has afflicted U.S. officials worldwide.

President Biden told U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate whether the coronavirus spread after a lab leak in China. Scientists welcome the request, but many still think it came from the wild.

With the focus shifting again to a Wuhan, China, lab, Dr. Céline Gounder, a COVID-19 adviser to the Biden transition team, says it's important to find the pandemic's origins to prevent the next one.

Some scientists worry the possibility the coronavirus escaped from research facilities hasn't gotten enough scrutiny. Others say it appears far more likely to have emerged naturally.

NPR has obtained an early copy of the report, which states that the coronavirus most likely did not originate at the wet market in Wuhan and that a lab leak was "an extremely unlikely pathway."

The Atlanta shooting has led to heated discussion about the blame — and violence — aimed at Asians during the pandemic. It's the latest example in a long history of hatred fueled by disease.

Peter Daszak of the investigative team sent to Wuhan says the farms were probably where the coronavirus first jumped from bats to another animal before infecting humans.

At a news conference this week, the World Health Organization made a surprising statement: The coronavirus could possibly be transmitted on frozen packages of food.

The White House has "deep concerns" over how initial findings on the coronavirus were communicated and demands China make data available to investigators, national security adviser Jake Sullivan says.