Haven't read the full article but this virus reminds me of something designed in the game Pandemic. Not that I actually believe it's manufactured, it's just that it has so many sinister properties.
It's probably worth your time reading it since the main lede is about exploring the discovery to develop non opiod pain relief.
"The scientists concluded that by designing small molecules against neuropilin receptors, they would be able to form a pain-relieving medication better than opioids."
It's like everyday we are being flooded with articles about different horrible symptoms of this sars virus and most of them were already studied years ago in different but related viruses. This is happening now mostly because of the media coverage, not because we have some alien virus that has the scientists frustrated. We really should never forget that, otherwise the public will freely allow non adequate measures to be taken. And this is a lot more worse than the typical seasonal wave of a respiratory virus.
There should be no shame in believing it is manufactured. I know, it is still stigmatized, but once, criticizing WHO response was also stigmatized by likes of NYT. These days, NYT has began looking differently at how this organization performed at the initial stages of the pandemic.
Edit: found it: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209288v2....