what the hell was that?
I never understood what was so completely conspiratorial about “it originated in an experimental lab in Wuhan”. The virus originated in Wuhan. They were doing experiments with viruses in Wuhan. It made as much sense as anything else. The denial of the possibility, and declaration that speculation on it was racist, leads to conspiracy theorizing, beyond the scope of the actual conspiracies of a number of competing governing agencies shutting down the speculation as a matter of different purposes and motives — where when and if it comes to pass that it was the case, the conspiracy theories will claim confirmation beyond this one item. I never understood why this was supposed to be racist — it is not declaring the virus creation and leak inherent in Chinese racial characteristics, or even cultural practices, and to the extent which the virus was causing an uptick in hate crimes to Asian immigrants it was doing so without any regard to theorizing on lab origins. Hell — the only alternative origin, some less than desirable practices at open markets, was probably worse for the effect.
I am stuck on this weird confusion of stated inferences. I never much had the problem with “Wuhan Virus” until its social rejection left it the providence of a-holes. But that is easily intellectually scuttled — I am not tied to the name. The dilemma of the social rejection of “lab leak theory” is it remains an intellectually honest concept that was never disproved by the facts on the ground, even as its social rejection left it the providence of 9/11 truthers and qanon-ers.