Engineered bioweapons are of course a thing, but sars-cov-2 is far from that. Even at the time, I knew college kids who could probably make a more dangerous virus if they had the resources.

Covid was a slow underhand toss of what an existential threat could look like, and humanity / governments fumbled it right into a faceplant. It's embarrassing, frankly.

All evidence and analysis of the virus point to natural origins and evolutionary pathways. There's no evidence of editing or that it was part of gain-of-function research. The virus is relatively harmless by historic measures, but also not weak or documented enough to be used in evolutional studies. It would be far more potent if it was engineered, and it wouldn't have been so novel if it was being used for research.