structure

Hypothesis structure (step 4b)

generated: 2026-07-20

Cluster inventory

1. HC-1 - Route of the first human SARS-CoV-2 infection — By what route did SARS-CoV-2 first infect a human?
   1. H-1 - SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans via zoonotic spillover at the Huanan market
   2. H-5 - SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans through a research-related incident at the WIV
   3. H-6 - The first human infection arose by neither route listed here (residual)

The whole question decomposes into a single cluster: this analysis’s main question is itself one sub-question — one event, one route — and the curated evidence pulls apart exactly that dimension.

Counts

H in (from step 3)	5
active	3 (H-1, H-5, H-6)
merged (4a)	1 (H-2 → H-1)
dropped	2 (H-3 dropped at 4b; H-4, absorbed into H-3 at 4a, cascaded to dropped with its merge preserved in former_merged_into)
minted at 4b	H-6 (residual), HC-1
clusters	1

Carving decision (4b)

A second cluster on the evolutionary origin dimension — {H-3 natural evolution, + a constructed “laboratory-manipulated genome” complement, + residual} — was considered and rejected: the constructed complement restates H-5’s own engineered-furin-site clause, and O-10, O-11, O-12 would discriminate both clusters in the same direction, double-counting that evidence at step 8 (rule 3; no depends_on note repairs it). H-3 was instead dropped as a straggler that clusters nowhere — it is true-but-non-competing, entailed by H-1 and consistent with H-5. Full reasoning in HC-1’s body.