Note that this is based on studies by Chinese-only researchers in state-backed institutions [1] that has not yet been peer reviewed. Occam's Razor says that the Wuhan Institute of Virology known for studying coronaviruses must have played a part.
Note that [1] is specifically titled "The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence"
Mischaracterizing the evidence and/or article really doesn't strengthen the "Occam's razor" argument.
[1] https://zenodo.org/record/6299600 [2] https://zenodo.org/record/6291628
And then take fact that there is essentially 4 characters with million pairs to read surely some random data will collide.
Sounds to me like most realistic and simplest explanation knowing the sides involved.
It sounds more like Fauci wanted to do Gain of Function research and needed partners who wouldn't complain about small details like the law. His partners turned out to be careless enough to release the virus and here we are.
Every now and then someone comes along and says: "there's no evidence the virus was engineered in a lab". But what would the evidence look like?
For example, is it possible to replicate a zoonotic crossover in a lab so that both hypothesis (zoonotic and lab leak) are equally probable?
> The simplest scenario is that this viral pandemic is like every other one in known history - including the last coronavirus pandemic - a zoonotic crossover.
Do you however give a positive probability to a lab leak? In what range does the probability lie according to most biologist? Is it more 20%, 2% or 0.2% that the lab leak is the correct hypothesis?
Put a lot of immune compromised animals together with humans, and nature will find a way
Given that viruses have multiple times spread from animals to humans this would be the simplest explanation, favored by Occam's razor.
That said, the scientific community has not ruled out a lab leak.
The Atlantic generally has very good articles on where the investigation stand, and how different people interpret the probabilities/coincidences.
For example https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/09/lab-leak...
Given that China is not really interested in any conclusion on this topic (except if the virus was imported from a different country) we will probably never know.
These are the author names from the three preprints:
The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence
Authors: Michael Worobey; Joshua I. Levy; Lorena M. Malpica Serrano; Alexander Crits-Christoph; Jonathan E. Pekar; Stephen A. Goldstein; Angela L. Rasmussen; Moritz U. G. Kraemer; Chris Newman; Marion P. G. Koopmans; Marc A. Suchard; Joel O. Wertheim; Philippe Lemey; David L. Robertson; Robert F. Garry; Edward C. Holmes; Andrew Rambaut; Kristian G. Andersen
Online: https://zenodo.org/record/6299600
SARS-CoV-2 emergence very likely resulted from at least two zoonotic events
Authors: Pekar, Jonathan E.; Magee, Andrew; Parker, Edyth; Moshiri, Niema; Izhikevich, Katherine; Havens, Jennifer L.; Gangavarapu, Karthik; Malpica Serrano, Lorena M.; Crits-Christoph, Alexander; Matteson, Nathaniel L.; Zeller, Mark; Levy, Joshua I.; Wang, Jade C.; Hughes, Scott; Lee, Jungmin; Park, Heedo; Park, Man-Seong; Ching Zi Yan, Katherine; Tzer Pin Lin, Raymond; Mat Isa, Mohd Noor; Muhammad Noor, Yusuf; Vasylyeva, Tetyana I.; Garry, Robert F.; Holmes, Edward C.; Rambaut, Andrew; Suchard, Marc A.; Andersen, Kristian G.; Worobey, Michael; Wertheim, Joel O.
Online: https://zenodo.org/record/6291628
Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment and animal samples of the Huanan Seafood Market
Authors: William J. Liu, Peipei Liu, Wenwen Lei, Zhiyuan Jia, Xiaozhou He, Linlin Liu Weifeng Shi, Yun Tan, Shumei Zou, Xiang Zhao, Gary Wong, Ji Wang, Feng Wang, Gang Wang, Kun Qin, Rongbao Gao, Jie Zhang, Min Li, Wenling Xiao, Yuanyuan Guo, Ziqian Xu, Yingze Zhao, Jingdong Song, Jing Zhang, Wei Zhen, Wenting Zhou, Beiwei Ye, Juan Song, Mengjie Yang, Weimin Zhou, Yuhai Bi, Kun Cai, Dayan Wang, Wenjie Tan, Jun Han, Wenbo Xu, George F. Gao, Guizhen Wu
Online: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1370392/v1
In the linked pdfs you can see the affiliations of the preprints. The first two are researchers from universities in the US, UK, Australia and EU countries. The last one is researchers from Chinese institutes.
Bottom line: the article is not based on studies by "Chinese-only researchers in state-backed institutions" as you say.
Also, please don't abuse Occam's Razor as a tool to shut down curious discussion.