The Covid-19 crisis has given a rare visibility to ‘science in the making’, with still uncertain effects on the image of science. In any case, it offered a moment of reflection on the place of science and working conditions of scientists, from which we can already draw some lessons in the sociology of science, with a particular interest in the way knowledge is produced on the history of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. First of all, the question of its origin has enabled scientists to underline with great clarity the dependence of their knowledge capacities on political choices. Another interesting aspect of their discourses is that they show how much scientific credibility also depends on a collective effort carried out outside laboratories. The pandemic has in addition increased the credibility both of emerging and forgotten specialties, and shown the complementarity of very different ‘ways of doing’ science. Finally, it has confirmed the inclusion of virology in a scientific and political movement associated with the great narrative of the ‘Anthropocene’. The question of the origin of the virus is still open, however, and is the subject of a controversy that further enriches its sociological interest.