Editing COVID-19 — Origins: The Laboratory Leak Hypothesis (section)

=== Overview ===
The '''laboratory leak hypothesis*** holds that SARS-CoV-2 did not arise from natural spillover from an animal reservoir into humans, but instead originated — whether through accidental infection of a researcher, improper disposal of materials, or other mechanisms — from a research laboratory in Wuhan, China. The most commonly implicated facility is the '''Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)***, which conducts extensive research on bat coronaviruses. The hypothesis does not necessarily require deliberate engineering or weaponization; an accidental release of a naturally occurring or experimentally modified virus is the mainstream formulation.