Opinion | Where Did the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling. – The New York Times

Even if RaTG13 had no role in the Covid-19 outbreak, questions were raised about why Dr. Shi and others seemed so unforthcoming about it. Then more questions were raised.

For example, the same group of internet sleuths that linked RaTG13 to the mine also uncovered that a genomic database maintained by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with information about thousands of bat samples and at least 500 recently discovered bat coronaviruses, went offline in September 2019. The official explanation that it was taken offline because it had been subjected to hacking doesn t explain why it was never securely shared some other way with responsible independent researchers.

Such gaps made it harder to rule out worrying scenarios. If there had been a lab accident involving SARS-CoV-2 or a virus like it that had been collected in the wild or experimented on in the lab, the database might have been taken down so there would be less evidence that might help others connect the dots. Officials might have investigated possible lab cases and prematurely believed it was in the clear. However, cases can be asymptomatic, and they might have missed the one that started a transmission chain and allowed the virus to circulate quietly until a superspreader event in December.

The secrecy and the cover-ups have led to some frantic theories for example, that the virus leaked from a bioweapons lab, which makes little sense, since, for one thing, bioweapons usually involve more lethal pathogens with a known cure or vaccine, to protect those who employ them.

But much more mundane threats lurked.

via www.nytimes.com

Into the weeds.

H/t WGS.