[nocoiner]

Ha, I think I’m probably in a pretty similar boat as you. I don’t have the expertise to evaluate any of the underlying science, so all I can really do is try to logically evaluate whatever I read about it (taking into account the author’s probable motivations). I think my current view is that is probably isn’t a deliberately engineered bioweapon, almost certainly wasn’t deliberately released, and could go either way on zoonotic transmission and an accidental release.

The aspect that puzzles me most are the claims (which still seem to circulate regularly) saying that the virus was definitely present (in Wuhan, or Italy, or wherever) in Q3 2019. But I’ve never seen any direct evidence of this. Shouldn’t it be a pretty trivial matter of testing pre-pandemic blood samples to definitely identity whether or not the virus is present? I’m sure I’m missing something, but if HIV could be identified from late ‘50s specimens that had been forgotten in a Belgian Congolese lab for several decades, I don’t know what would be different here.