Your mother should have raised someone who could think for themselves. Alas the apple probably didn't fall far from the tree
Both SARS and MERS came from bats, so there is no reason to invoke a laboratory accident.
Researchers led by Shan-Lu Liu at the Ohio State University say there is “no credible evidence” of genetic engineering (Emerging Microbes & Infections, doi.org/dpvw). The virus’s genome has been sequenced, and if it had been altered, we would expect to see signs of inserted gene sequences. But we now know the points that differ from bat viruses are scattered in a fairly random way, just as they would be if the new virus had evolved naturally.