The lab leak thing is interesting. I think it boils down a couple things: a knee jerk response to disbelieving everything Trump says, and the people in power realizing that a lot of people were going to look bad if the lab leak theory was investigated. the podcast "Lean Out" did a great podcast explaining all the players in the USA and Canada and China. Bottom line is that China fucked up, millions are dead, economies have been ruined, and children's lives upended and harmed. Oh, and Americans can't stop screaming at each other for five minutes. I don't listen to NPR anymore, ever since I heard one of the hosts of Morning Edition call the lab leak theory racist in 2020. So it's less "racist" for us all to hate Chinese people for eating weird stuff and having no hygiene standards? It never made any sense.