> Option two assumes that the lab had only one lineage of the virus - but it collected samples out in the wild and could easily have collected both together, mixed and stored them, and leaked them together. So the wonderfully detailed analysis rests on this assumption.
They were two lineages of the same virus, commonly seen in repeated spillover transmission. Explain specifically how you think they would "leak" both of them together - because the theory in your comment eliminates the option of an infected worker spreading the lab virus.
The two lineages were both present in some of the first infections at the Market in early December 2019 and in environmental samples taken at the market in mid December.
They couldn't have circulated for “a few months” because in that time, literally tens of thousands of cases would have been reported.
So you’d have to have a two SNP mutation from one of the first infected people in the world that would go on to infect basically everyone else in the world since Lineage B was reported first but soon died out. It’s not impossible (nothing really is) but would be extremely unlikely.
They were two lineages of the same virus, commonly seen in repeated spillover transmission. Explain specifically how you think they would "leak" both of them together - because the theory in your comment eliminates the option of an infected worker spreading the lab virus.