The origin of SARS-CoV-2

 One of the difficult things for the lay public and popular press to grasp is that science doesn't deal in proof. Science deals in facts and evidence. All scientific conclusions are provisional and subject to refinement or falsification by further experiment.

Accordingly, the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of scientific debate. There are certainly gaps in our knowledge, but we know enough about Sarbecovirus transmission to adopt the null hypothesis that SARS-C0V-2 was of zoonotic origin. The alternative hypothesis, that it originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is so far unsupported by the available evidence. While the Institute may not have been as forthcoming as some might wish, that isn't evidence of a lab origin. Here's the latest I've read on the topic of SARS-CoV-2 origins:

“Overall, SARSr-CoV animal-to-human transmission associated with infected live animals is the most likely cause of the COVID19 pandemic. However, the massive scale of cold-chain supply, particularly following disruption to the meat industry in China caused by ASFV-associated culling, suggests that frozen susceptible-animal carcasses, either for human or animal consumption, should not be discounted as playing a role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2”

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2021/08/16/science.abh0117.full.pdf

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