zlacker

It's obviously super hazy, but it's worth clarifying that being developed in the lab != originating from the lab.

From what I've heard on Chinese social media, there are a bunch of plausible sounding theories.

For a lot of jobs in China, it's expected that there's moderate incompetence or grift.

For example, say the lab has a bunch of extra animal samples (mice, bats, w/e). Someone in the cleaning staff could make a few extra $ by selling those samples to a wholesaler at the local wetmarket (to be turned into dogfood, etc.); maybe they only meant to sell the clean samples, but got things mixed up.