It’s not the substance of the arguments that is causing this “reappraisal” of the lab leak hypothesis, it’s that right-wingers have bitched about it long enough that establishment institutions have just given in and decided to take it as an alternative hypothesis on equal standing with others
If the far right hadn't abandoned Q anon, there would probably be op-eds about how we should take it seriously in the mainstream media by now.
And then we get another round of bog-standard scolding of expert consensus or debate among subject-matter experts as some sort of illiberal exclusion
It was the same way with tobacco, with gun legislation, with climate change - there was a preponderance of evidence, and it was either denied or covered up or spun as just another opinion - they weren't just opinions, they were based on observable statistics and scientific evidence.
Mike Pence was a tobacco truther *in this century* bsky.app/profile/saba...
wow. i'm a little stunned i hadn't heard about this before.