The State Department has said there is evidence that Wuhan viral researchers may have gotten sick in fall of 2019. AP. The viral researchers were sick in November with symptoms similar to the Coronavirus. Though the State Department did not go so as far as to confirm that the outbreak was due to an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, it condemned China's secrecy over the outbreak. China has refused to allow outside investigations other than the WHO, and even they have been stymied by China's secrecy. The State Department cited previous outbreaks from viral leaks in Chinese labs as well as noting that the WIV was confirmed to be researching the SARS-COV-2 virus precursor, RaTG13.
The State Departments fact sheet can be found here.
My Comment:
I think there is a very strong circumstantial case for the Coronavirus pandemic being a man made disaster as opposed to a natural one. However, it's hard to discuss the issue without running into censorship or harassment. China has a large digital army and they will attack people who discuss the possibility and a lot of mainstream media outlets won't cover the theory without calling it a "conspiracy theory".
Honestly, the secrecy and lack of openness from China is probably the strongest evidence of the outbreak being a lab leak. To be fair, China lies about everything so even if the outbreak is natural they have blown away all of their credibility years ago. But the coverup and lack of openness does show that they are scared.
It's very possible that China doesn't know where the virus came from as well. If the virus did come from a lab they might not have realized that it had leaked. However, that wouldn't change much, if they don't know and covered up the possibility they are still guilty.
I should note that the case for the virus being a lab leak hasn't been proven. It's a circumstantial case that got stronger because people were sick at the WIV. But it hasn't been proven that those people were sick with Coronavirus or if they had the flu or some other disease. But given the fact that the virus became prominent in Wuhan and not somewhere else the case becomes a little stronger.
Also, the WIV was researching the precursor of the Coronavirus. They were working on making Coronaviruses more transmissionable and have had major leaks in the past. There are also incidents where workers at these viral labs sold infected animals to wet markets or kept them themselves for food. It's not like that it's impossible that the virus escaped from the lab.
And the other theory, that the virus emerged naturally, isn't that strong. The infected bats don't live anywhere near Wuhan and in order to infect the city someone would have to have been infected in the area the bats live and then travel to Wuhan. That is possible but if it happened that way it would be very likely that the sick person would have infected people along the way.
I think both possibilities are possible with the lab release being more likely. However, I don't think we can prove that in a court of law. Even on a preponderance of the evidence standard, I don't think you could prove that the virus was more likely a lab leak.
I will say that we probably can rule out that Coronavirus being a deliberate leak. Though China did allow the virus to spread internationally (all they had to do was cancel outside travel and the virus likely wouldn't have made it out) I don't think they had any reason to release the virus. Considering that the virus did a major amount of damage to China doing so would have been cutting off their nose to spite their face. It doesn't make any sense so I think it's extremely unlikely.
I don't know if we will ever find the truth though. No matter what China is going to remain silent about what really happened, even if it was a natural release. China does not want to take the blame for the worst viral pandemic in recent history. They will lie and misinform regardless...
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