JF

I'm sorry but it's been obvious from day one that there's a strong likelihood that this was a natural bat virus collected for study in a lab that then escaped. It's a hell of a coincidence that the new killer bat virus emerged right next to the center for studies of bat viruses. https://twitter.com/nickconfessore/status/1246153609210970116 …

I mean it wouldn't be the first time someone carelessly handled viruses in a lab

SARS escaped a lab multiple times iirc. It's certainly nowhere out of the realm of possibility, though I believe the theory entails passing it through an intermediate host. Ferrets have the right receptors.

You know what they also sell in wet markets? Ferrets. So either way this fun little experiment was going on with some mammal constantly exposed to bat coronavirus until it adapted to transmit between them.

As far as I know there's no evidence yet for an intermediary between bats and humans although there isn't evidence that excludes it. The intermediate host was a way to explain why it broke out in the market that doesn't sell bats next to the lab that studies bat viruses.

Yes but to my understanding the evidence doesn't suggest 'direct' bioengineering in the sense of gene editing - thence the 'debunking' of it being man-made. The best way to apply selective pressure to a pathogen is to give it a new host and let it figure things out on its own.