Dr. Shafer noted that currently there are three hypotheses regarding the virus’s origin: the “zoonotic theory” that proposes a bat coronavirus mutated or transformed into SARS-CoV-2; the “lab-leak theory” that proposes SARS-CoV-2 was in a bat or other wild animal from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and somehow escaped, possibly through infecting a lab worker; and the “engineered virus theory” which proposes that scientists intentionally created a superbug for research or perhaps to use as a biological weapon.
The commentary reviews the peer-reviewed science that identified various strains and the genetic material of coronaviruses from the SARS 2002-2004 outbreak to the present to illustrate the strong evidence that the predecessor of SARS-CoV-2 “evolved gradually over decades before jumping into humans in late 2019.”
The zoonotic theory is consistent with every other emergent infectious disease in the past 100 years, including rabies, HIV, H1N1, Ebola Sudan, … SARS, MERS, and the plague.”
Regarding the lab-leak theory, apparently, there is “no evidence to support” it, but that “does not rule out the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 came to Wuhan on the shoe of a researcher who visited the bat caves of Yunnan province.” For the engineered virus theory, Dr. Shafer wrote, “the available evidence rules that out.”
That doesn’t mean you stop looking for the truth.