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According to the article, it's both:

"researchers had assembled an archive of cave-bat-borne coronaviruses"

Researchers were studying viruses that had an animal origin. The lab leak would be from not following proper safety protocols.

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Ah yes, the phrasing tricks have been a media favorite when discussing covid origins… conflating lab origin with natural origin through the almost certainty that the viral material used at the WIV originated in nature is pure intellectual dishonesty.

What people don't realize is there is an overlap between 'originating from nature" and "originating from a foreign attack", both share a non-lab-leak origin but the latter is not even considered in the countries (US, UK, Japan, etc) with a history of using bio-weapons against citizens/civilians.

Mistaking one for the other is highly probable.

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