The content of the book, titled Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, was previewed by one of its co-authors, Matt Ridley, in the Daily Mail. The tabloid posited that its authors would offer evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic could have started as a "laboratory leak of a possibly engineered coronavirus" followed by a "cover-up of epic proportions". The article came days after US intelligence declassified its own [assessment] of the origins of the disease. The report from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the opinions of the "internet sleuths" behind the book differ…