[iliti22]

The origin in Yunnan/Laos does not contradict the possibility that samples were transported to and studied in Wuhan.

The five-to-seven-year divergence window would allow ample time for such study to take place in a lab before an accidental release.

The study provides circumstantial evidence against a lab-leak (by highlighting a plausible natural route), but does not provide a direct refutation of lab-related scenarios.

The headline, “Global study debunks ‘lab leak’ theory, finds Covid-19 virus didn’t originate in Wuhan,” is overstated and interpretively biased, for the following reasons:

The term “debunks” implies definitive disproof, which is not supported by the study’s methodological scope.

“Didn’t originate in Wuhan” refers to a genetic origin, not a place of emergence or initial outbreak, which obviously did occur in Wuhan.