Could the novel coronavirus have been genetically engineered in a lab?
At the AAAS annual meeting on Feb. 13, Bedford fielded a number of questions from the international press corps about stories circulating that the virus causing COVID-19 might have been genetically engineered. “If you look for evidence of genetic engineering, you can find none whatsoever. It is completely consistent with natural evolution,” Bedford said.
In a Feb. 20 Twitter thread, Bedford summarized the evidence supporting a natural, rather than laboratory, origin for the virus:
![Tweet from Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) that reads: I've written before that #COVID19 has no evidence of genetic engineering and the "bioweapon" theory has no grounds. See, for example [link]. In this thread I wanted to directly address the theory of escape from lab in Wuhan. 1/21](https://www.fredhutch.org/content/www/en/news/center-news/2020/01/2019-ncov-wuhan-coronavirus/jcr%3acontent/root/responsivegrid/textimage_270864407/image.img.jpeg)
