[whydoyoucare]

Agreed - dismissing the lab-leak theory early on without conclusive evidence either way was certainly suspicious.

Any scientist worth his/her salt shouldn't dismiss any theory outright without having hard data to back it up.

[mbauman]

There are two things going on here:

- There's strong evidence that it's not bioengineered; scientists used very strong and convincing language here.

- There was initially hope of finding the zoonotic reservoir; scientists used couched language here to subtly detangle a natural virus vs. a natural virus that had adapted to passage in cell culture in a lab, and had priors assuming a zoonotic source would be found.

Guess which language journalists glommed onto.

[baja_blast]

Virologists have a bias against the lab leak theory because if true it would threaten their careers. If it's natural on the other hand they get a boost in funding.

It makes sense they are so against the idea, no one wants to be associated with/partially responsible for the death of 4 million + people worldwide, nor do they want to have their careers ruined.