If this turns out to be true, this is unbelievably reckless and literally insane. The idea that there are labs out there combining and cultivating contagious viruses is just crazy.

Aside from engineering a new plague or to use a mutated virus as a bioweapon - I can't think of any useful reason to do such a thing (not that I think developing a bioweapon is a reasonable excuse). Perhaps, there are legitimate scientific aims for this type of study but, in my mind, if there's any chance that the virus could escape the lab the risks are too high.