"Gain of Function" research is brought up very often in this context. A natural virus would first need to get into the lab in order to escape from it. I'd argu

"Gain of Function" research is brought up very often in this context. A natural virus would first need to get into the lab in order to escape from it. I'd argue it's a lot harder and less probably for a bat Virus - which isn't adapted to Humans yet - to be collected by a lab, then infect a researcher, then continue the chain in Humans, rather than the same virus making it from the Jungle to a Human population without involving some researchers. Even more likely, Sars-Cov-2 widely circulated in the intermediary hosts and had thousands of contacts with Humans until one lineage "stuck" because it finally matched.