The coronavirus outbreak, which is believed to have originated in China’s city of Wuhan, may not be the result of a containment failure at a bioagent laboratory, but one can hardly be criticized for wondering. The theory, after all, is a credible possibility, and that means Sen. Tom Cotton’s otherwise conspiratorial commentary on this issue is not nuts.

Cotton has spent the past few weeks suggesting that the coronavirus outbreak may have come from the bioagent lab in Wuhan. As Bill Gertz first reported, Wuhan is home to one of China’s most advanced bioagent research laboratories. Gertz is also likely correct that the facility retained a compartmentalized bioweapons lab. That gives context to Cotton’s reference on Sunday to a Chinese Global Times article suggesting that the outbreak may not have originated in a Wuhan food market, as Beijing originally claimed.