Interesting podcast episode for a epidemiological perspective on this. He talks about how 5-15% of the population will test positive for a coronavirus at any given time, and how doctors can get false positives and invent a crisis out of misunderstanding the data. The original cluster of sick patients in Wuhan may even have been a local poisoning situation (Old Chinese male smokers, in polluted Wuhan, eating filthy food, drinking questionable liquor) but a misdiagnosis can spurn overreactions.
The test itself is not reliable. A patient can test positive one day, negative the next, then positive again, just look at Romney.
I'm leaning toward this is a real virus that was released to hurt China/Iran and maybe Italy for their participation in the New Silk Road Initiative, but the mortality is still way too low to warrant the global pandemic response.