That's a pretty astonishing about-face. Since I originally posted this story in December, there's been a scant few new details. The only thing that has really changed is that it has slowly but surely been politically acceptable to discuss a possible lab leak. That changed because Trump left office and the new administration hasn't been completely hostile to the possibility.

I am utterly disinterested in the politics of covid, but you seem to want to drag that into the frame for some reason - and let it color your view.

Do you think that your immediate reaction to my story last December was in some way obscured by your political view? Do you worry that maybe you have been completely misled by your own political bias and the outrage over Trump has made you blind to realities that might have aligned (by pure accident) with Trump's world view?

I think that the anti-trump msm narratives have been so strident that many helpful truths about Covid (among other things) were buried, ignored or scoffed at over the past year - for no other reason than they coincided with one of Trump's brash hot takes. If Trump said the sun rises, the narrative would be that he denied the night.

I've found myself scorned, derided and smeared by people like you for happening to agree with something Trump said - often without even realizing it.

The mea culpa has yet to manifest for a year of smears on this topic, and others. I'm not holding my breath.

I am not a racist, nor a trumper nor a QAnon conspiracy theorist, and I'm not scientifically illiterate for noting the likelihood of a lab leak last December or today.