[frde_me]

I'm confused, do you mean the animal origin had no evidence either, but was favoured? But not having evidence for 5 years suddenly makes the other theory favoured instead?

So basically neither had real evidence, but one was favoured?

[_cenw]

False equivalence. Zoonotic diseases have precedent (SARS, MERS) and SARS-CoV-2 most closely resembles BANAL-52, a bat Coronavirus.

Animal origin still seems more likely to me, but less than 5 years ago, since we have a missing link one would expect to see.

[wongarsu]

Animal origin does not contradict a lab leak however. Especially if you have a biolab studying coronaviruses in bats in the city identified as ground zero.

It does favor an accidental lab leak over a targeted weaponization and release, but it doesn't contradict a lab origin.

[morepedantic]

Coronavirus lab leaks in China also had precedent. What's your point?

There was no evidence for a zoonotic origin other than it was possible.

There was little evidence for a lab leak other than it was possible, but at least there was some.