The lab leak theory has legs because it plays to a particular frailty of the human mind. When something large and bad happens (COVID), we are wired to think that an agent is responsible for it. Structural explanations, viral evolution, etc. doesn’t meet our brain’s causal requirements.
Max KennerlyGood lord. The "conspiracy" was a bunch of emails among scientists saying "this is xenophobic bullshit and is confusing the public, we should rebut it" and they were right. The "lab leak" theory still requires far more leaps, inferences, and assumptions than the straightforward zoonotic theory.