Scottj175 wrote..

I've noticed over the past few days national news outlets pushing headlines that the virus was most certainly NOT an accidental lab release but did in fact leap form bats to humans.

I was curious why the origin was suddenly of interest when it hadn't really been for a year.

Smokescreen?

Bret Weinstein has been talking about this on his podcast. He thinks it's way too early to declare that it is not an accidental lab release.

He tweeted a few days ago: "For those not convinced the matter is settled, this analysis is worth a look." and linked to this paper that pokes holes in COVID being of natural zoonotic origin.

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2102/....

Quote:

While a natural origin is still possible and the search for a potential host in nature should continue, the amount of peculiar genetic features identified in SARS-CoV-2s genome does not rule out a possible gain-of-function origin, which should be therefore discussed in an open scientific debate.