> I'm curious why Dr. Collins believes so strongly that a lab leak was unlikely, that is his reasoning, given that he states SARS had leaked on at least a couple different occasions resulting in some deaths, yet was quickly contained.
“A known, widely researched pathogen was present in a lab” and “a brand new, unknown pathogen was present in a lab” are vastly different scenarios.
Coronavirus research has been going on for a decade at the Wuhan Lab. They sent a staff of half a dozen people to a bat cave in 2013. Dr. Zhengli was a coronavirus researcher there. See [1] for in-depth history of Wuhan Lab.
“A known, widely researched pathogen was present in a lab” and “a brand new, unknown pathogen was present in a lab” are vastly different scenarios.