According to an international team of public health scientists in a statement published in The Lancet, while there are question marks surrounding the exact origin of the disease, it does appear to have originated in wild animals. Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology showed that the virus's genome is 96 percent similar to the coronavirus found in bats. In addition to claiming that a naturally evolved virus has mistakenly escaped from the laboratory, some conspiracy theories also postulate that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers around the world, including in the United States and China, have conducted studies involving the creation of experimentally engineered hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is genetically modified
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/theory-that-coronavirus-escaped-from-a-lab-lacks-evidence-67229