The whole lab-leak controversy strikes me, more than anything else, as a reflection of the corrosive effects of Trumpism.
When Trump and his cronies said something—anything—that was at odds with what was broadly understood to be true, to treat it as presumptively false was treated as not just wise, but necessary. And that was the right approach, broadly!
Tom Cotton was happy to insinuate that Covid was a Chinese bioweapon, and we've all spent five years learning that to respond to such bullshit with a textured, nuanced, ambiguous rebuttal is to saunter into a trap.
And the thing is, we weren't wrong. It WAS a trap. Even in this instance it was a trap.
I never publicly dismissed the lab leak theory. I definitely took my personal cues from those who did, though, and that's giving me cause for reflection. But the tied-up-with-a-bow takeaway from the whole thing isn't obvious to me.
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