Both things can be true at the same time. Whether or not the virus is human engineered or not is orthogonal to whether or not it escaped from the nearby lab.

Both things can be true at the same time. Whether or not the virus is human engineered or not is orthogonal to whether or not it escaped from the nearby lab. It is known that the lab was studying these sorts of viruses. The same lab was responsible for a SARS outbreak in the year following the big SARS outbreak. Mistakes happen. EDIT. I was mistaken about the specific lab that was the source of the 2004 SARS outbreak. The lab responsible for that outbreak was in Beijing.