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Maybe both sides are right: If SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from a Wuhan lab, it doesn’t mean the virus was necessarily engineered | Genetic Literacy Project

The “lab leak” hypothesis about the origin of Covid-19 has been getting a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so. This is the idea that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accidentally escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that conducts research on coronaviruses. Just a few weeks ago, a group of highly respected virologists and epidemiologists published a letter in the journal Science calling for a more thorough investigation, stating that the lab leak hypothesis was not taken seriously enough in earlier investigations.The coincidence of having a major virus research facility, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), just a short distance from the live animal food market that was originally believed to be the source of the outbreak is too great to ignore. Even more curious is that WIV was actively doing research on coronaviruses in bats, including the bats that carry a strain of SARS-CoV-2 that is the closest known relative to the Covid-19 virus itself.

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Source: Maybe both sides are right: If SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from a Wuhan lab, it doesn’t mean the virus was necessarily engineered | Genetic Literacy Project