trailSARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin
SARS-CoV-2 originated through zoonotic spillover at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan
The furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is evidence of laboratory engineering
The furin cleavage site is absent from the closest known natural relatives of SARS-CoV-2
The furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 uses an arginine codon (CGG) uncommon in sarbecoviruses
The DEFUSE proposal described inserting furin cleavage sites into SARS-related coronaviruses
Furin cleavage sites occur naturally in other coronaviruses
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The WIV possessed or could have engineered a close progenitor of SARS-CoV-2
The WIV possessed or had access to a bat coronavirus sufficiently similar to SARS-CoV-2 to serve as an engineering backbone
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The WIV had the technical capability to engineer a SARS-CoV-2-like coronavirus
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Epidemiological zoonotic case· against
Early COVID-19 cases cluster spatially around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market
Lineage distribution patterns indicate two independent spillover events at the Huanan Market
Two basal SARS-CoV-2 lineages are statistically improbable under a single spillover event
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Lineage A was present at the Huanan Seafood Market
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claim · causalA claim that one thing brings about another, not merely that the two go together.constitution →claim page ↗︎
SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin
⇄ContestedCredible evidence or argument exists on multiple sides.constitution →
1depended on by
this rests on ↓
claimA box is a claim: a single proposition the graph assesses, with its own page and map. Click any claim to centre the map on it.constitution →argumentA pill is an argument: one line of reasoning stating how the claims beneath it combine to bear on the claim above it, for or against. Arguments are not destinations; click their claims to explore.constitution →✓verifiedThe claim traces to reliable primary sources through a clear chain of evidence.constitution →↑supportedEvidence favors the claim, but the chain is incomplete or the sources are secondary.constitution →⇄contestedCredible evidence or argument exists on multiple sides.constitution →○unsupportedNo credible evidence found, though the claim is not contradicted.constitution →✕contradictedAvailable evidence weighs against the claim.constitution →?unknownInsufficient information to assess.constitution →◌unassessedNo current assessment — the Steward prioritises higher-importance claims, so this one is likely still queued.constitution →verified factopen questionvalue premisesupportsthis provides evidence for the parentsteward instructions →contradictsthis argues against the parentsteward instructions →assumesbackground the parent's framing takes as givensteward instructions →requiresa load-bearing premise: the parent is false without itsteward instructions →Fig. — detail falls off with distance; every claim is an address.