[DoingIsLearning]

> whether it escaped from the lab is a bit of a whatever

It's actually a big difference:

It's the scenario of accepting a statiscal misfortune from mother nature versus the scenario of a lack of duty-of-care from a public institution, closely followed by having to pay reparations to a very long list of countries.

[dwd]

Duty-of-care is usually interpreted as what would a reasonable person expect them to do in that situation. As long as they took all reasonable precautions and followed the safety protocols required for handling a pathogen of that type, then there shouldn't be any liability.

My point is that they failed in their disclosure whether it came from the lab or not, and more likely where foreign governments would pursue them for any repatriations.

It's the same situation if there was a nuclear accident - once it has occurred the expectation is to be upfront with the facts so other nations can prepare and deal with any damage. The circumstances of why are only important as far as preventing it happening again.