I have been researching for a few hours now, and find that the authors of the paper that claimed 4 insertions from HIV were present in the nCoV outbreak pathogen have withdrawn their paper pending revision.  Here is the statement:

>" Prashant Pradhan • 15 hours ago
This is a preliminary study. Considering the grave situation, it was shared in BioRxiv as soon as possible to have creative discussion on the fast evolution of SARS-like corona viruses. It was not our intention to feed into the conspiracy theories and no such claims are made here. While we appreciate the criticisms and comments provided by scientific colleagues at BioRxiv forum and elsewhere, the story has been differently interpreted and shared by social media and news platforms. We have positively received all criticisms and comments. To avoid further misinterpretation and confusions world-over, we have decided to withdraw the current version of the preprint and will get back with a revised version after reanalysis, addressing the comments and concerns. Thank you to all who contributed in this open-review process.
: Authors of the Manuscript"

<a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1">Here</a> is the bioRxiv site.

Clearly there is ongoing disagreement and some rancor, albeit far short of the level of trolling found on /pol/, thank God.  Still, the debate has been ... fervent... with detractors using phrases like 'premature', 'fake', and 'spurious', and supporters using words like 'significant', 'intriguing', and 'important'. The discussion has not concluded, and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, absent incontrovertible evidence, IMHO.  

Given the withdrawal and pending revision of the paper, I agree with one commenter that it's conclusions should be regarded with caution.  

![wuhan food market.png](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/valued-customer/FfQJ0N39-wuhan20food20market.png)

<a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/health/man-behind-global-coronavirus-pandemic"><i>IMG source - ZeroHedge</i></a>

On January 26, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally">ScienceMag</a> published an article stating that the Wuhan Seafood Market appeared to not be the source of the initial introduction of the pathogen, which they report as having happened on Dec. 1.  

>"In the earliest case, the patient became ill on 1 December 2019 and had no reported link to the seafood market"

There seems to be no consensus on the origin of the virus.

For more background information regarding the Wuhan BSL-4 lab's work on bat CoV, and potential to have had something to do with this pathogen, <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/health/man-behind-global-coronavirus-pandemic">ZeroHedge</a> on January 29 published this article discussing Peng Zhou, the leading researcher at that facility on bat virii and immune systems, his background and research. 

Apparently, ZeroHedge is again banned from Twatter for being so scurrilous as to suspect this virus was made in a lab. 

![peng zhou.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/valued-customer/W6YlegyK-peng20zhou.jpg)

<a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/health/man-behind-global-coronavirus-pandemic"><i>IMG source ZeroHedge - Peng Zhou</i></a>

Finally, Kristian Anderson of Scripps Research Institute has analyzed 27 published genomes of the nCoV pathogen to ascertain TMRCA (The Most Recent Common Ancestor), it's mutation rate, and etc.  They conclude it likely appeared around the beginning of December (Dec. 2, est.) and that it's mutation rate seems similar to SARS, Ebola, Zika and other RNA virii.  They also state it was introduced once, and thereafter was transmitted from person to person. This work is published <a href="http://virological.org/t/clock-and-tmrca-based-on-27-genomes/347">here</a>, on January 25, and cites the sources of the genomes analyzed.

IMHO, there remains considerable reason to suspect Peng Zhou, whose work was very specifically related to this pathogen, did have something to do with it's origination, particularly as it is shown to not have originated in Wuhan's seafood 'wet' market by the research reported in ScienceMag, which came from The Lancet, one of the most prestigious journals in the field.  I will here state that I am not making an accusation, but yet find it the likeliest possibility.  Pending more information, that remains unproven.

<a href="https://steemit.com/@valued-customer"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmTP3H5e26rYhcSkY8XSKjqy6aVKuXpk82q7VNZK6N5zhv/valued-customer.png"></a>