[slg]

>I think you’re leaving out the part where, for political reasons, there are and were groups motivated to sell distrust in American institutions as well as their political rivals.

The conversations on HN about the lab leak hypothesis always leave this out. They often imply the politicization of covid came from scientists trying to protect themselves rather than from politicians. Maybe the lab leak theory is true, but you can't dismiss the fact that it first rose to public prominence because politicians pushed it as a way to shift the blame for the pandemic. Therefore the anti-lab leak argument was heavily political specifically because it was responding to an already politicized argument that had little evidence to support it.

[TrispusAttucks]

Not true.

Lab leak hypothesis came up early from NIH's own people. We have the emails. Government officials had these emails before "We the people" did so would have been first to sound the alarm publicly.

https://nypost.com/2022/01/24/emails-reveal-suspected-covid-...

https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114270/documents/...

[slg]

I'm unclear what specifically in those links do you think contradicts what I said. The lab theory being discussed in scientific circles does not change the fact that politicians are the ones who pushed it into public discourse for their own gain and not because of any scientific pursuit of truth.

Also side note, an opinion piece from the New York Post isn't exactly the most trustworthy source.

[TrispusAttucks]

The theory is popular because it's logical and has tons of circumstantial evidence. Full stop.