I don,t think it was manufactured.
As Bogie said in Casablanca, referring to probability, "of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk into mine."
Of all the cities in China, the virus had to begin in Wuhan, where there is a large government virus experimental facility.
That is a Hell of a coincidence.
It's certainly the hell of a conspiracy theory.
The Wiki article on the Wuhan Virology Lab has this to say about that:
"The Institute was rumored as a source for the
2019–20 coronavirus outbreak as a result of allegations of
bioweapon research,
[14][15] which was debunked as a
conspiracy theory by
The Washington Post in a piece titled: "Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research".
[5][14] The Post cited U.S. experts who explained why the Institute was not suitable for bioweapon research, that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and that there was no evidence that the virus was genetically engineered.
[5][14] In February 2020,
The Financial Times reported from virus expert and global lead coronavirus investigator, Trevor Bedford, who said that "The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution".
[16]
During January and February 2020, the Institute was subject to further conspiracy theories, and concerns that it was the source of the outbreak through accidental leakage,
[17] which it publicly refuted.
[18] Members of the Institute's research teams were also subject to various conspiracy theories,
[19][20] including Shi, who made various public statements defending the Institute.
[21] While
Ebright refuted several of conspiracy theories regarding the WIV, he told BBC China that this did not represent the possibility of the virus being "completely ruled out" from entering the population due to a laboratory accident.
[17]"
So, not 100% ruled out that a natural virus got out from there but seemingly unlikely - and certainly nothing to do with biological warfare.
