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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
Thought I would just point out the researchers believe tends that bats then infected Pangolins that then infected humans, while the wet market possibly didn't sell bats it did, I assume, sell pangolins that are mainly bred or caught in southern china where the bats are, it would seem more likely that a pangolin being bred in some barn in southern china which had bats nesting in it or something of that nature caught the bat flu and was then shipped out to Wuhan, where it then had its revenge on humans dumb enough to think that Pangolin tastes better than chicken.
All of this doesn't disprove that the Chinese did this on purpose or by accident or anything else, but it seems some variation of a pangolin catching bat flu on the farm or caged in some truck on the way to market is still massively the most likely.
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Even then, all that's really needed is somebody in the pangolin trade who would have had close contact with the animals also working in or visiting that wet market. It's not crazy to think that some guy who trades in other animals in that market also trades in pangolins or bats and started human to human transmission from there.
Mostly though, I just think nobody is totally sure at this point. It's not inconceivable to me that it was engineered in a lab, but it's also pretty conceivable that it wasn't. It will take more time before an answer to that becomes clear, if it ever does.
Edit: Honestly, someone trading in something as valuable and distinctive as a pangolin probably isn't going to keep that on show in a market. It would be a special order type of thing, but someone in the animal trade would be the most likely kind of person to traffic in that.