I disagree. For this mutation to occur naturally may have taken millennia or longer, perhaps infinity. There's an aspect here of (to borrow from Silicon Valley's brilliant ending) 4 minute mile-ism. It was considered impossible until it wasn't, and then it was routine. Now that this thing is out there, it could be routine insofar as the mutation barrier is super low now. It just needs to mutate enough to evade whatever the eventual vaccine is, and we're fucked over and over. The large energy well has been overcome by tinkering, so it's possible only small ones remain. Hopefully the other side of that coin is that it weakens over time, a la the flu and other coronaviruses. But maybe not. We don't know the behavior of partially unnatural/chimeric viruses in the wild. I think if this is true it's a worst case scenario. China may have to be isolated from the international community. There's no punishment that fits the crime here, but it is a crime against humanity (again, if true). Acts of God sort of have to be accepted, even if grudgingly. And as bad as evil is, at least there's a logic that can be countered. But outright negligence when playing with nukes is intolerable, unforgivable, and warrants the strongest possible sanction.