Wuhan was the last place the COVID should have started. A study used Wuhan as an example of where it wouldn’t happen.

Question

Wuhan was the last place in the world that should have shown up. In a paper they use their own city as an example of a place, it would not show up

Answer 1

The statement above relating to the origins of Covid-19 is false. The statement comes from the social media platform Blue Sky, published from a personal account with only 16 followers. The publisher of the statement is not a licensed publication and does not site any additional resources. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence published a paper in June of 2023 directly denouncing and showing evidence against theory and media attention around the origins of Covid being in a biomedical lab named the "Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)". Though this has been denounced by the Federal Government, the theory of Covids origins is very heavily believed to be a man-made effort, with examples like the publication above being one of many opinions around conspiracy. 

Source:

Report-on-Potential-Links-Between-the-Wuhan-Institute-of-Virology-and-the-Origins-of-COVID-19-20230623.pdf

Answer 2

The statement made on this post is false, and is also an opinionated statement with no evidence that can back it up. Additionally, the claim was made by an account with 16 followers on BlueSky, hinting that this person is not particularly credible in regards to reporting this information. According to the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, there are somewhat de-classified State Department documents that suggest Covid-19 originated as a lab-leak in Wuhan, China. Regardless of whether or not this theory itself is true, the claim made above is more of an unbacked conspiracy rather than a true report. 

Source: 

https://oversight.house.gov/release/classified-state-department-documents-credibly-suggest-covid-19-lab-leak-wenstrup-pushes-for-declassification/

Comments

The source you used seem incredibly credible, but the document itself is rather short and most of the sources it cites are difficult to parse.

Answer 3

The claim made is confusing and hard to parse, but it seems to be stating that Covid could not have started from a laboratory in Wuhan- due to the conditions there being unfavorable for the spread of such a disease. Not only is the original claim of the thread that Covid originated in a lab false, but the claim that it couldn't have spread in Wuhan is also false. Scientists believe that it began in Wuhan's seafood market, making the jump from animal to human there.
Not only is this not true, but the person posting it has very few followers (16). While it's not impossible for someone to be both reliable and relatively unknown, it's highly unlikely and doesn't add to their credibility in the slightest.

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8337#editor-abstract

I also find the following article by the same people who made the above to be easier to understand, but it has the same basic premise.

https://theconversation.com/the-covid-lab-leak-theory-is-dead-heres-how-we-know-the-virus-came-from-a-wuhan-market-188163

Comments

I appreciate your evaluation of this claim being more of an exaggeration than a definite "false." The sources you pulled are clear, showing more credible evidence than the original user's post and you articulated that kindly. It's also helpful to have an alternative source that poses the same claim in an easily understood way.