Given the authoritarian regime in China
that is a distinct possibility
Also, there is a more recent FReeper posting on which indicated
that Wuhan is the home of an Experimental Pathological Disease research center.
It may, also, be the possibility of an experimental pathogen having "gone in the wild".
China has a history of not being forthcoming with information
and even minimizing disease (ie: SARS), as well as the porcine virus.
Well, if they haven’t had political unrest before...having a modified virus reach the general public might ‘encourage’ that going forward.
It takes longer in authoritarian societies, but, information wants to be free. And will seek a path to do so eventually.
I can envision a situation where research materials were improperly disposed and ‘transferred’ to a population of rats/bats/etc and thus to the humans in the area.
Or they’ve got a resident ‘doomer’ working in one of those facilities that did it deliberately.
I’d love to know what drew their attention to these few (initially) cases so quickly. What made them notice the ‘signal’ there over all the ‘noise’ of other respiratory illnesses/hospitalizations in a city of 11M people...And sample/sequence/identify it so quickly...