On the subject of the propaganda war over the virus origins (and, as Bill requested, without commenting on the verity of the lab leak theory), does anyone else get the sense that the CCP may have blundered with how carefully they stage-managed the WHO visit to Wuhan? It feels that the obviously farcical nature of the WHO team shooting down the lab leak theory essentially at the CCP's say-so, followed by endorsing the CCP's nakedly propagandist cold chain theories as somehow likelier, really brought this issue to center stage, in no small part by forcing Dr. Tedros to openly (if indirectly) contradict his own team and acknowledge the possibility of a lab leak in order to maintain WHO's credibility in the eyes of OECD nations.

Might the CCP have been better off simply not permitting a visit at all, rather than permitting this kind of visit which they clearly hoped to make a propaganda win but which seems to have transformed into a massive own goal and fueled narratives more unfavorable to the CCP?