[scarmig]

As far as conspiracy theories go, lab-made coronavirus is one of the more interesting and plausible ones.

I still have to reject it. Reasons:

1. If the Chinese national leadership had designed it as a bioweapon, they would also have foreknowledge of its characteristics. Once it was clear it was a new coronavirus in late December/early January, they would have just shut things down instead of waiting three more weeks.

2. No nation has attempted to weaponize a coronavirus before, because it makes a terribly non-specific bioweapon. It will almost inevitably come and cripple your economy if you ever did use it on someone else. And it is also very dangerous if one of your labs releases it accidentally.

[burfog]

Those are arguments against "designed as a bioweapon" and "intentional release by government". They are not arguments against "created in a lab", "lab containment accident", or "intentional release by crazy employee".

We know for a fact, based on research published in Nature and in Journal of Virology, that the lab in Wuhan was modifying bat coronaviruses to replicate well in human cells. Some of these modified viruses were changed to use the ACE2 receptor found in humans, just as the pandemic virus uses.

[benbojangles]

What if it was not made by a government. But a few exchange program students who were happy to show off? Made in a 'wouldnt it be funny if we...' moment. And then the 65 year old male student supervisor caught it on the flight home?