I wonder what will come of that. Won't China then have some questions to answer? Or is the WHO going to conveniently explain it away as bad science?

I think we'll find WHO and China angling for a muddied-water outcome where the virus may not have even come from Wuhan, or China. The CCP was insistent when setting up the scope of the WHO 'investigation' that overseas origin sites be included. As i mentioned, that would be perfectly fine if it really was an independent investigation - but seeing how it's not - then it smells like the investigation being tailored to fit a pre-formed outcome.

My understanding of the reason for Italy being an early adopter of the virus was that there were a lot of Chinese from Wuhan working in textile factories in northern Italy, living in dorm-type accommodation. The first officially recorded cases in Italy were two people who had just arrived from Wuhan on Jan 23.

It does seem likely that the virus was around for months before it was first detected - given that symptoms are very similar to a flu, it could have easily been misdiagnosed. It's also possible that it mutated within humans in the initial stages until it hit the jackpot re transmissibility.

Once it was detected by Wuhan doctors in Nov-Dec, there was an initial effort by authorities to shut them up. Some were detained. I tend to believe those doctors were acting honestly and reported it as soon as they became aware of it.

In a lab escape scenario, yes it's possible that lab actors may have been aware that it had escaped, and kept it quiet hoping it would be ok. It's equally possible they weren't aware it had escaped.

In a deliberate leak scenario, yes, you would want to keep it under your hat as long as possible. The problem i see with this theory is that if i was going to deliberately leak it, i wouldn't do it right next to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In the movie script i was writing, the only way i could reconcile this is if it was designed for say release in HK, to suppress the protest for example, then there was a slip betwixt lip and cup, and it got out in Wuhan instead.

(PS. I wrote quite a lot of that script, but now i honestly can't see anyone daring to publish it even if it was good enough. If you take a look at Netflix, there's virtually nothing that could be construed as unfavourable to the CCP in their entire catalogue. In fact i struggle to think of a single movie or tv series published by anyone that is critical of the CCP since Seven Years in Tibet - even though there are some fantastic stories in there.)