> ... whether the virus originated from a lab or from a wet market
Maybe this is pedantic, but the introduction to humans could have happened in a wet market whether the virus itself originated in a lab (where bats could have escaped or been smuggled out and sold, etc.) or zoonotically.
>>mcbits+(OP)
Right. One scenario could be: escaped from the lab with a technician who visited the wet market on the way home from work, sparking the first identifiable cluster.
>>mcbits+(OP)
Indeed, that is a possibility. It's possible both for the virus to be engineered and spread from the wet-market, and to be zoonotic and spread directly from the lab (where a sample was stored). Perhaps the ambiguity there does contribute to some of the more extreme opinions and discussion.