[axpy]

The same statement in different contexts are interterpreted differently. Saying COVID came from China is not an problem but using the term "China virus" as a way to promote racism is problematic.

Same is true about the possible lab leak. In your example, it was originally hate speach because it was pulled by the media and some part of the population in a very racist way given only vague conjectures. I do think at that point it made sense to stop talking about it in the media because a it was not very well backed and of a low plausibility. It's just damn hard to strike the right balance when we are mostly geared toward emotional response. Same thing happened with vaccine and treatments.

I do think we need to be careful about proper communucation on some subject because of the high potential for misinterpretation. This is especially true when we are talking about highly technical subjects that might not be obvious to everyone.