Many in this thread have remarked on there being two version of "lab leak", 1) that it was manipulated in a lab, then escaped, or 2) that it was a natural virus

Many in this thread have remarked on there being two version of "lab leak", 1) that it was manipulated in a lab, then escaped, or 2) that it was a natural virus that escaped from the lab. The evidence is that it is a natural virus, so 1) is excluded by scientific data. As to 2), the problem is that there is no evidence that SARS-CoV2 was ever at the Wuhan Lab before the pandemic, and also that the first people to become infected were also not at the lab. There is however evidence that the market was the origin of the pandemic. So, there's no evidence for either version of "lab leak", and evidence against them. It's as simple as that.