[AngelaJohnston]

From 2015 we have documentation that a lab was experimenting with a virus which was COVID-19 or a very similar coronavirus. A couple of the experimenters had Asian sir names.

A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence

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2015 Dec;21

A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence.

Menachery VD1, Yount BL Jr1, Debbink K1,2, Agnihothram S3, Gralinski LE1, Plante JA1, Graham RL1, Scobey T1, Ge XY4, Donaldson EF1, Randell SH5,6, Lanzavecchia A7, Marasco WA8,9, Shi ZL4, Baric RS1,2.

Abstract
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans. Here we examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein. On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.
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Okay then, has an epidemic-causing virus ever actually escaped from a lab?

Well yeah, it happened five times in recent history.