Great overall podcast, because Peterson is a world class explainer and to explain well he needs to understand well and to understand well he really digs and pokes thoroughly. Not saying I believe all of it, because China number one and all that.
Reasons why it *could* be a lab leak (but definitely not saying it is, y’know), my paraphrased notes:
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-there was a lab near the outbreak researching exactly this kind of virus
-the virus was atypical in its ability to spread between humans (transmissibility)
-they identified a “furin cleavage site” (an added bit of DNA code) in the virus DNA
-there’s still a lack of finding the animal transmission vector / specimen(s)
-the multiple attempts to cover up early findings (in both China and the US) that even hinted at a potential lab leak / man-made virus
-there was a red herring of an identified pangolin virus whose DNA sequence was later found to be too different, and was not found near the same area
-those scientists and administrators in charge in both the US and China had grant proposals and research projects on precisely this (furin cleavage, bat viruses, gain of function)
-there were prior bio safety incidents at that very lab, on which the top Chinese leadership were consulted
-this new virus differs greatly from others like it, which were bat viruses, but not particularly lethal, and mostly intestinal
-in the case of SARS, the transmission chain very clear, and the animal vector and index cases were eventually found; none of that’s happened here
-although there was a heavy concentration of cases near the suspected origination wet market, it’s a bit of drawing the bullseye after taking the shot; only those who self-identified as being near that market were diagnosed with it — if you weren’t near the market, even if you had the same symptoms, you were diagnosed with something else (like the flu?)