Pulitzer rules for journalism specify that entries must be work published in the previous calendar year; for the 2024 journalism prizes, eligible work was material published in 2023, with a submission deadline in early 2024. Older work is not eligible in later cycles. (grokipedia.com)

The reporting Jason referred to is the June 2023 investigation by Michael Shellenberger (and colleagues) on Substack’s Public, naming three Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers (including Ben Hu) as the alleged first COVID-19 patients conducting gain‑of‑function work, which was then echoed in a June 20, 2023 Wall Street Journal article citing U.S. officials. (marshall.senate.gov) That work therefore would have been eligible for the 2024 Pulitzers (covering 2023 journalism) if it were going to be honored.

However, the 2024 Pulitzer winners in journalism did not include any award for COVID‑19 origins or the Wuhan lab; the Investigative Reporting prize went to Hannah Dreier of The New York Times for her series on migrant child labor in the U.S., and the Public Service medal went to ProPublica for its Supreme Court ethics reporting. (en.wikipedia.org) Likewise, the 2025 Pulitzers (for 2024 work) honored Reuters for its “Fentanyl Express” series in Investigative Reporting and honored The Wall Street Journal for national reporting on Elon Musk, not for any COVID‑origins coverage. (reuters.com) Comprehensive winner lists for 2023–2025 show no Pulitzer at all awarded for COVID‑19 origin or “patient zero” reporting, and no Pulitzer in Shellenberger’s biography. (en.wikipedia.org)

Separately, declassified U.S. intelligence released under the COVID‑19 Origin Act of 2023 explicitly rejected key arguments advanced by lab‑leak proponents about sick Wuhan researchers, and a detailed FactCheck.org review concluded there was “no bombshell” confirming those claims or settling COVID‑19’s origin. (en.wikipedia.org) That undercut the central premise of the “patient zero” narrative rather than establishing it as proven.

Because (1) the only Pulitzer cycles in which this specific 2023 reporting could plausibly have been recognized have already passed without any award, and (2) Pulitzer eligibility rules make later recognition for the same 2023 stories effectively impossible, Jason’s prediction that this particular Wuhan‑lab "patient zero" reporting “will wind up being a Pulitzer” has not come true and is now best judged wrong.