Here is a hypothesis that fits the data perfectly (but that could have a somewhat low prior):
- A poor studen has discovered that there is a demand in the wet market for bats.
- The student works at a lab that either has an in-house breeding area for presumably healthy bats, or that buy such bats from an external vendor.
- The student sees the opportunity for some extra income by selling some of those bats to the local wet market
- By some accident, one or more of the bats sold have been infected with some of the virusues being studied at the labratory.
Edit: A variation of the above idea would be if some bat-specialist (someone with skills for catching, keeping or transporting bats were working both the for virology institute AND for the wet market). This person could have, in some way, facilitated transfer of a virus from the institute to the wet market.
There is probably a number of such possible ways to associate the lab with the wet market, simply based on the two having a shared interest in bats.
- A poor studen has discovered that there is a demand in the wet market for bats.
- The student works at a lab that either has an in-house breeding area for presumably healthy bats, or that buy such bats from an external vendor.
- The student sees the opportunity for some extra income by selling some of those bats to the local wet market
- By some accident, one or more of the bats sold have been infected with some of the virusues being studied at the labratory.
Edit: A variation of the above idea would be if some bat-specialist (someone with skills for catching, keeping or transporting bats were working both the for virology institute AND for the wet market). This person could have, in some way, facilitated transfer of a virus from the institute to the wet market.
There is probably a number of such possible ways to associate the lab with the wet market, simply based on the two having a shared interest in bats.