More than 173 million infections have been recorded around the globe since the coronavirus began circulating, but exactly how the pandemic started remains a mystery. The World Health Organization has said it’s “extremely unlikely” the virus began spreading after a lab accident, but last month, President Joe Biden called for a 90-day investigation into the pandemic’s origins, and recent reporting on illnesses among workers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology reinvigorated bipartisan interest in the lab leak theory. Even so, public perception of the pandemic’s origins is highly polarized. The new survey, conducted June 4-7, found that 70 percent of Republicans believe the virus spilled from a lab in Wuhan, China, while just 11 percent think it transferred naturally from animals to humans. Among Democrats, 32 percent back the lab leak idea and 40 percent say they think the virus spread from animals. Overall, 46 percent of U.S. adults believe the COVID-19 pandemic originated with a lab accident, while 26 percent think the virus began spreading naturally and 28 percent said they don’t know or have no opinion.