TWiV reviews criticism of NIAID monkeypox virus experiments by House Republicans, spread of wild poliovirus across Afghanistan and Pakistan, plan to overhaul NIH by House lawmakers, and the potential pandemic risk of circulating swine H1N2 influenza viruses.

TWiV rebuts a recent opinion piece which falsely claims that the COVID-19 pandemic began in a lab (it began in Nature), followed by a discussion of Paride bacteriophage, which has the unsual property of being able to kill dormant, antibiotic-tolerant cells by direct lytic replication.

Vincent travels to the University of Pennsylvania to meet up with Susan, Rick, Gigi and David to discuss the origin of SARS-CoV-2, how the FBI might have reached its conclusion on the matter, and public and political perception of scientific risk.