COVID-19 has now been with us for more than a year and a half. It has stopped societies in their tracks, triggered sharp economic downturns and killed more than 4.2 million people.

But we still do not know where the deadly virus came from for a simple reason: China does not want us to know.

China first reported that a novel coronavirus had emerged in Wuhan weeks after its initial detection. This should not be a surprise. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) prefers to suppress information that might cast it in an unflattering light, and the emergence of COVID-19 within the country’s borders undoubtedly fits this description. In fact, the Chinese authorities went so far as to detain whistleblowers for “spreading rumors.”