The term 'lab leak' in virology is not a single theory but encompasses a range of possibilities, from field researchers being infected and bringing samples back to a laboratory, to laboratory researchers becoming infected via aerosol transmission, or even the possibility of genetically modified viruses escaping.

“let me say first that lab leak — as it's understood is not a unitary theory — it ranges all the way from — you know field researchers went into a bat cave brought back natural samples into a laboratory and that natural sample somehow leaked or a laboratory researcher got infected simply through you know aerosol transmission which is what we're talking about this is not i mean the word leak implies like liquid gushing out of a pipe that's not what we're talking about we're talking about aerosol transmission but it could have been an infected lab worker it could have been an infected field researcher bringing a sample back but the you know phrase lab leak sort of runs all the way up to the possibility that someone in a laboratory was manipulating viruses potentially in an experiment to make them more infectious to see if they would become more infectious and that that new strain not a natural strain per se but one that was genetically modified could have leaked from a laboratory so it really runs the gamut it's not a single thing”