Writing for The Wall Street Journal, scientists Richard Muller and Steven Quay examine the evidence and conclude the following about the Covid-19 virus. Hat tip to Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics for the link.
Based on the scientific evidence alone, an unbiased jury would be convinced that SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus escaped after being created in a laboratory using accelerated evolution (a k a gain of function) and gene splicing on the backbone of a bat coronavirus. Using standard statistical methods, we can quantify the likelihood of the lab-leak hypothesis compared with that of zoonosis. The odds enormously favor a lab leak, far more significantly than the 99% confidence usually required for a revolutionary scientific discovery.
For the non-academic reader, that last sentence means the odds are much better than 99 out of 100 that a lab leak was the source. Meaning, if China insists no lab leak occurred, the burden of proving that remote possibility is on them.
