That is serious and useful, unlike the groundless claim of natural origin. The lab in Wuhan has been publishing coronavirus research for many years. In some of the research, they cause bat viruses to replicate in human cells by using the ACE2 receptor... exactly as this pandemic does.
Here is China making a virus like this one, even acting on the ACE2 receptor and testing it in human cells, publishing it in early 2008:
When an outbreak of exactly that type of virus happens right next to the lab, the only reasonable assumption is that it came from the lab. If there were a sudden outbreak of smallpox next to the CDC lab in Atlanta, we wouldn't just shrug it off as a natural occurrence. The same applies here.
> Here they are again, years later, still playing with extremely hazardous coronaviruses that act on the ACE2 receptor in humans
"Playing with" as in "identifying and sequencing the virus in wild bats". The editorial notes say "The results provide the strongest evidence to date that horseshoe bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV."
The location is... interesting, but it's also near a large wet market with a wild life section in a big city, pretty much exactly the circumstances you'd imagine to see natural transmission.
It kindles the imagination but it's not really a smoking gun.
We won't have a smoking gun unless somebody from the lab tells all, which would involve going to prison in China or claiming asylum in a different country. Such a person might even be ignored unless he provides wikileaks with a hard disk full of lab data.
They were definitely doing more than just "identifying and sequencing the virus in wild bats". They purposely caused bat coronaviruses to become more capable of infecting human cells. It's a cool experiment, but far too dangerous to attempt. One of the modifications was to use the ACE2 receptor. This receptor is found in humans, not bats. The pandemic uses that receptor.
“ we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes”
All that means is that they didn’t use a gene editor.
In all likelihood, they were experimenting with something in animals in a lab and it accidentally got released.
If you were trying to research transmissibility, then this is probably the most likely scenario.
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EDIT - if you downvoted me, please explain why. I ascribe no malice in my post, and if I am misunderstanding the process, then correct me before downvoting me.
How many animals would it take to get the exact kind of mutation needed to make something like the coronavirus? It feels like you’d need thousands in a lab, right?
But if you had animals with weakened immune systems and eight years or more of testing (since SARS), then it seems you have enough time for some mutations to happen.
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.
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.
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?
