evidence: Whether SARS-CoV-2 was introduced through a laboratory accident or whether it has been genetically manipulated is highly debatable. After a thorough analysis of the genetic characterizations of SARS-CoV-2 from both the early and later stages of the pandemic, as well as its close relatives from wild animals, many researchers in the global scientific community have reached the consensus that SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to have escaped a laboratory and there is no scientific evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has been genetically manipulated10. However, the exact spillover event and emergence process of SARS-CoV-2 is still unclear, and more information from the earliest stage of the epidemic is clearly important to understand how SARS-CoV-2 came into contact with people. [...] Li, X. et al. A furin cleavage site was discovered in the S protein of the 2019 novel coronavirus [in Chinese]. Chin. J. Bioinform.18, 103–108 (2020).