[fighterpilot]

Given that lab leaks are fairly common through recent history and the location of the WIV, it was a totally plausible hypothesis back then. It was just taboo for purely political reasons. The case for a lab leak now is mostly the same as it was back then - circumstantial.

[belltaco]

There were a lot of claims that it was a bioweapon leak, in the recent months there has been more circumstantial evidence that it might have been an accidental leak. So yes, there was a lot of misinformation at that time around this.

[vorpalhex]

You can't badly conflate two different claims and then use that as a reason to engage in censorship.

[fighterpilot]

The leak hypothesis itself - not merely a bioweapon leak - was verboten despite its evident plausibility as a hypothesis given a precedent of other lab leaks.

Little has changed since then aside from Trump being voted out which then freed up the political left to consider this possibility in its discourse.

[belltaco]

A case of the boy who cried wolf not being believed.

[fighterpilot]

If you don't see a serious problem with scientists and journalists abdicating their responsibility to dispassionatly pursue the truth and the damage this does to institutions and the public confidence of those institutions, and moreover you do not even lay any blame at their feet and excuse this behavior just because the other side is more dishonest, then I can only think that you have some pretty powerful ideological blinders that have pushed you into a very partisan culture-war type worldview.