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Virus outbreaks are usually first recognized in large cities. Most large Chinese cities have labs that study coronaviruses. They were established in response to SARS-CoV-1 in the early 2000s.

So no matter where it comes from the chances are good a coronavirus outbreak will first be detected in a city that has a coronavirus lab.

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My understanding is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was one of only 2 BSL-4 labs in china in 2019, and the only one focused on emergent viruses. This is out of 684 major Chinese cities.

The good thing about free will is that one can just believe that something is true, regardless of how much people on the web hit oneself over the head for it.

Ideally, said belief is rooted in scientific methods, of course.

But there is actually no need for this "lab! No! Market! no! Lab!" ping-pong that seems to be developing here.

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