 were conducting the world's largest research program on bat SARS viruses, possessed the world's largest collection of bat SARS viruses, and possessed the virus most closely similar to SARS-CoV-2. The large distance between Wuhan and bats harboring SARS-CoV-2-like viruses points away from a natural origin of COVID, and Wuhan's status as the global epicenter of research on bat SARS viruses points toward a research origin of COVID.