Despite numerous hypotheses for how COVID-19 emerged in humans in Wuhan, China, in the winter of 2019, many experts have surmised that this was a zoonotic disease that originated in horseshoe bats. In a Perspective, Lytras et al. discuss the evidence supporting COVID-19 as a spillover event, likely from an intermediate host species that acted as a conduit from horseshoe bats, which are a host reservoir for severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs)....