This is the straw man that people who want to argue against the possibility lab leak use to try and ad hominem the person arguing for the possibility.

Unfortunately, the article states explicitly that there was ill intent and extensive PLA involvement with the lab.

The military was also given positions of responsibility in the Wuhan institute, according to a US Senate report. A book published in 2015 by the military academy discusses how Sars viruses represent a “new era of genetic weapons” that can be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed”.

The authors are PLA researchers, and one of the book’s editors has collaborated on numerous scientific papers with Wuhan scientists. They discuss how Sars can be weaponised by fusing it with other viruses and “serial passaging” the resulting mutant to make it more dangerous.

The investigators believe the Chinese military had taken an interest in developing a vaccine for the viruses so they could be used as potential bioweapons. If a country could inoculate its population against its own secret virus, it might have a weapon to shift the balance of world power.

If true, it's probably good that they were incompetent in leaking the virus and incompetent in making a vaccine to front run the virus. Wonder if that would have started world war 3 of they successfully vaccinated their population then either accidentally or on purpose released the virus.

Given how people are reacting here, they could literally release it at the same time as mass vaccinating their own population with pre-stockpiled vaccine, assert that it was simply the massive superiority of Chinese science that allowed it and western governments/media would immediately swallow this story whole.

The evidence about what was happening is not only overwhelming but notice how not a single government is going to lift a finger about it. The NIH just refunded this work and the Biden admin doesn't give a shit. They're all deep in denial at this point and will never even admit to what has happened, let alone start WW3 over it.

The article claims that Chinese army researchers were at the lab researching viral weapons. That sounds like ill-intent to me.

It also states that Covid-19 is the only Coronavirus discovered with a furin cleavage site on the spike, and that the lab had applied for funding to research the insertion of such a site.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that the lab deliberately launched a pandemic by deliberately releasing the pathogen on its own doorstep.

Well, no one knowledgeable about the field. I have, unfortunately, heard otherwise intelligent people saying that the Chinese government doesn't mind sacrificing it's own people, and did launch it in its own city on purpose (which is, to be clear, ridiculous).

"Never ascribe to conspiracy, what is adequately explained by incompetence".

I think the evidence is pretty clear that at least the Chinese government believes that the covid-19 virus came from their lab (they could, of course, be mistaken about that).

> I think the evidence is pretty clear that at least the Chinese government believes that the covid-19 virus came from their lab

What evidence are you referring to?

> The article claims that Chinese army researchers were at the lab researching viral weapons. That sounds like ill-intent to me.

The US does weapons research it does not mean ill intent. The Chinese does weapons research for the same reason the US does it.