An Open Letter to
Chancellor Lee Roberts

Dear Chancellor Roberts:

On July 30, 2026, discussing an investigation into UNC’s football program, you articulated an admirable standard for institutional leadership:

“If something has gone wrong, we want to know about it. If something needs to be fixed, we will be sure to fix it.”

We respectfully ask you to apply that standard to the unresolved questions surrounding coronavirus research conducted at UNC–Chapel Hill, the safety and oversight of that work, and its possible relevance to the emergence of COVID-19.

We are not asking you—or anyone signing this letter—to accept a particular origin theory. Nor are we asserting that UNC or any UNC researcher caused the pandemic. We are asking UNC to obtain and test the evidence through a genuinely independent, technically competent investigation.

UNC was not peripheral to the research now under scrutiny. Dr. Ralph Baric’s laboratory was internationally recognized for assembling and modifying coronaviruses and collaborated with EcoHealth Alliance and scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This publicly funded work included research involving potentially dangerous pathogens.

The 2018 DEFUSE proposal described plans to introduce novel cleavage sites into SARS-related coronaviruses. DARPA declined the proposal, but legitimate questions remain about whether any proposed work was pursued through other programs, laboratories, or funding sources. Jim Haslam has also advanced a disputed and unproven—but specific and testable—hypothesis concerning UNC-linked research and the movement of coronavirus materials and technology between American and Chinese laboratories.

The relevant evidence includes laboratory notebooks, freezer inventories, virus sequences, grant files, biosafety and incident reports, transfer agreements, shipping records, and communications. UNC has resisted public-records requests and withheld thousands of potentially relevant documents. Disagreement with a hypothesis is not a substitute for examining records that could confirm or refute it.

Were research risks properly evaluated? Were laboratory incidents fully documented and reported? Were federal agencies given complete and accurate information? What did UNC’s leadership know, and how did the University respond when questions about COVID-19’s origin arose?

These are questions of scientific integrity, public accountability, and continuing public safety. An investigation should not target individuals or manufacture a predetermined conclusion. It should establish the facts, correct any failures, and strengthen safeguards for potentially dangerous research.

We therefore respectfully ask you to:

1. Appoint an independent panel whose members have no conflicts involving UNC or the research under examination.
2. Give the panel full access to relevant laboratory records, grants, communications, biosafety documentation, inventories, transfer records, and personnel.
3. Include outside expertise in virology, biosafety, federal grants, research integrity, public records, and digital forensics.
4. Direct the immediate preservation of all potentially relevant physical and electronic records.
5. Release records that can lawfully be made public and provide a clear explanation for any material withheld.
6. Require the panel to publish its findings, supporting evidence, and recommendations.

We make this request because great public institutions protect their reputations by confronting difficult questions honestly. If the concerns are unfounded, an independent investigation can establish that and strengthen confidence in UNC. If mistakes or safety failures occurred, Carolina should identify and correct them.

Football received an investigation because you said UNC should find out what went wrong and fix it. Questions surrounding publicly funded coronavirus research deserve at least the same commitment. North Carolinians—and people worldwide affected by the pandemic—deserve the evidence, answers, and accountability that a credible independent investigation can provide.