Did not skate. It was deliberately released. The lab leak theory is a fallback position from their original position that it happened from bat soup at the market. That was a deliberately lie. When that lie was no longer tenable, their fallback position was lab leak. When it became obvious it was existing in the lab, and was created there, that leaves you two choices deliberately released, or leaked. The fact that they were denying its existence tells me this is a fallback position. It was deliberately released into the wild, not that deadly of a virus, but it was designed to give the Chinese an excuse to shut down riots and lock everyone indoor. Riots have been spreading in Wuhan and Shanghai and threatened to go nationwide. In America, Donald Trump was a runaway freight train for reelection. Releasing the virus was their way to kill both of those problems.