evidence: In January, we analyzed sequences to determine if a link exists between wild bat coronaviruses and lab-housed viruses, and we found a possible connection to a vector sequence technology that originated in China called pShuttle-SN. Upon further analysis, the link is clearly not a direct one; however, the result was not spurious. The original published analysis of the 2019-nCoV genome had a segment, later referred to as "the middle fragment", that no one could match to any known sequences. Our analysis pointed to pShuttle-SN, and thereby to spike proteins.