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by wbraun 2255 days ago
Fundamentally, you are not going to find any direct evidence that the virus came from a lab unless the virus has signs of being engineered (which seems to not be the case).

Only in the last week or so major news organizations have started covering the theory of lab escape of an unmodified pathogen. You can find tons or articles arguing either way.

Given the fact that almost every city in China is going to have wet markets, but Wuhan is one of the few (only?) cities to have labs researching these types of viruses it would be irresponsible to not consider the possibility. Given that the CCP is going to do the utmost to cover up any negative stories you are never going to find any smoking gun level evidence.

1 comments

Did you read the Newsweek article?

"The SARS-CoV-2 virus has some key differences in specific genes relative to previously identified coronaviruses — the ones a laboratory would be working with," said Adam Lauring, an associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School and an expert in the evolution of viruses.

Again, there are many articles that argue either side of this. You can pick and choose quotes however you like.

That being said, you don't believe that a lab that studies novel coronaviruses could be studying a novel coronavirus? There is a history of pathogens escaping labs and there are many more wet markets in other cities in China than labs doing related research. As the simplest approximation just try applying bayes rule.

Additionally, the CCP is an authoritarian regime with a strong motive to cover things up. A refusal to even consider the possibility of a lab escape is willful ignorance.