"The 'smoking gun' in this talk shows up at <a href=""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K78jqx9fx2I&amp;t=49m45s"">49:45</a>", in March 2018 there was a $14M funding request made to DARPA "we want to use gene splicing and genetic engineering techniques to modify bat coronaviruses, if you give us the funding for it" then eighteen months later -- BAM -- a genetically-engineered coronavirus escapes from a lab in Wuhan.