For the lovely Amanda Marcotte, transplanted Texan to Brooklyn to South Philadelphia, jumping the gun is simply de rigueur!

Great work, useful idiots of the media: Most Americans buy the unsubstantiated “lab leak” theory

Rapid spread of lab-leak theory shows the right is still browbeating the media into spreading misinformation

By Amanda Marcotte | July 9, 2021 | 1:00 PM EDT

Here’s most important thing to understand about the idea that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab: It’s not very likely, and most of the science still points toward natural origins, meaning random transmission from an animal species. As with Saddam Hussein’s mythical “weapons of mass destruction,” which led to the Iraq War, evidence for the “lab leak” theory is mostly right-wing wishful thinking, tied to a couple of thin pieces of not-really-evidence, and held together with the duct tape of speculation. Meanwhile, evidence for a natural origin, while far from complete, is scientifically sound and fits with everything that’s currently known about the evolution of coronaviruses. When you really dig into the competing theories, it becomes clear that while “lab leak” makes for a good TV plot, there’s not much else going for it. The theory of animal-to-human transmission, while less dramatic and perhaps less emotionally satisfying, is the likelier one.

Yet we now have a Politico-Harvard poll released Friday morning that shows Americans are “almost twice as likely to say the virus was the result of a lab leak in China than human contact with an infected animal.” And while the lab-leak theory has been hyped by Trump apologists looking to distract from the ex-president’s massive mishandling of the pandemic, the buy-in for this unlikely theory is not particularly partisan. Politico reports that “59 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats” believe the lab-leak narrative, while only 28 percent said the virus came “from an infected animal.” This is a dramatic change from March 2020, when only 29% of Americans — basically far-right authoritarians — endorsed the lab-leak theory.

There’s more at the original, and it’s not behind a paywall. Skipping a few paragraphs, Miss Marcotte blames her usual suspects: evil reich wing Republicans:

It wasn’t evidence that changed people’s minds. It was irresponsible media hype of the “lab leak” theory, brought on by a major push from right-wing conspiracy theorists, and also some gullible pundits and journalists who let themselves be used by the right.

Oops!

Senior Biden officials finding that Covid lab leak theory as credible as natural origins explanation

By Natasha Bertrand, Pamela Brown, Katie Bo Williams and Zachary Cohen, CNN | Updated 6:18 PM ET | Friday, July 16, 2021

Washington (CNN)Senior Biden administration officials overseeing an intelligence review into the origins of the coronavirus now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild — a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory.

Still, more than halfway into President Joe Biden’s renewed 90-day push to find answers, the intelligence community remains firmly divided over whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab or jumped naturally from animals to humans in the wild, multiple sources familiar with the probe told CNN.

Little new evidence has emerged to move the needle in one direction or another, these people said. But the fact that the lab leak theory is being seriously considered by top Biden officials is noteworthy and comes amid a growing openness to the idea even though most scientists who study coronaviruses and who have investigated the origins of the pandemic say the evidence strongly supports a natural origin.

Current intelligence reinforces the belief that the virus most likely originated naturally, from animal-human contact and was not deliberately engineered, the sources said. But that does not preclude the possibility that the virus was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats — although many scientists familiar with the research say such a leak is unlikely.

I never knew that President Biden and his Administration were vulnerable to “a major push from right-wing conspiracy theorists.” 🙂

One of us thinks that perhaps, just perhaps, Miss Marcotte is herself an entire conspiracy theory, all wrapped up in her one little head.