FROM THE PAPER PUBLISHED BY THE CHINESE RESEARCHERS:
I read their preprint and I found it quite convincing.
For those interested in the Scientific Paper written by two Chinese researchers from the South China University of Technology,
Here is the PDF for the study:
TITLE: THE POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF THE 2019-nCov CORONAVIRUS
by BoTao Xiao and Lei Xiao
ABSTRACT:
The 2019-nCoV has caused an epidemic of 28,060 laboratory-confirmed infections in human including 564 deaths in China by February 6, 2020. Two descriptions of the virus published on Nature this week indicated that the genome sequences from patients were almost identical to the Bat CoV ZC45 coronavirus. It was critical to study where the pathogen came from and how it passed onto human. An article published on The Lancet reported that 27 of 41 infected patients were found to have contact with the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.
We noted two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus in Wuhan, one of which was only 280 meters from the seafood market. We briefly examined the histories of the laboratories and proposed that the coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory. Our proposal provided an alternative origin of the coronavirus in addition to natural recombination and intermediate host.