COVID-19, the "facts" have changed.

Conspiracy theory alert! Conspiracy theory alert!  Wuhan lab may be at the center of the COVID-19 virus.

Via Jazz Shaw at Hot Air:

Were you one of the people who was criticized or even muted on social media last summer for referring to the microbes causing the pandemic as the “China virus?” It certainly happened to a lot of people. Slowly but surely, however, the narrative has been changing. Not only has it seemed clear from the beginning that the virus originated in or around Wuhan, China, but “following the science” has led some medical experts to increasingly question whether the virus would have been able to make the jump from bats or pangolins to human beings. One of the first media retreats on the “racism” front was seen last week when Politifact retracted one of their fact checks calling the suggestion that it may have originated in a laboratory a “conspiracy theory.”

So what many of us considered a possibility, and were willing to wait for evidence and were derided as racists and lunatics for being cautious, may actually be true?  Or at least a possibility?  Color me unsurprised that now that the election is over, it's okay to consider the possibility. 

As Shaw points out, it's the facts that ultimately will matter:

Attempts in the media to shut down any discussion of a possible laboratory origin for the novel coronavirus have been nothing more than a politically driven witch hunt from the very beginning. No matter whether this virus cropped up in the wild and made the jump to humans or came out of a test tube, it’s obviously important for us to understand how it started. This isn’t going to be the last pandemic that mankind faces, and if we’re going to be any better prepared next time, we need all of the accurate data that we can possibly obtain.

The other important takeaway is do not be afraid to be pessimistic in the face of missing data.  Don't let anyone cow you into believing that the science is settled (be it Al Gore or Dr. Fauci or some talking head at CNN).