“But worries surround the (Wuhan) lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. ‘Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,’ he says.”
Hmm... It seems that a good guide / comparison would be those SARS breakouts from facilities in Beijing. IF anyone has info. on what transpired thereafter.
However, the Wuhan lab is both newer and higher level, and, that same article points out the steps taken to overcome the potential problems stated in your excerpt. (Reading further, that Ebright fellow doesn’t seem to want any more labs anywhere, which is just “nuts”.)
That doesn’t eliminate the lab a source - I just think it’s less likely than the biological “soup” of the region.
The biggest problem I have is that we get some people talking like this instance is some sort of escaped bioweapon on the rampage, and panicking themselves or others. (If this is a bioweapon, it is a damn poor one.)