“At times, it seemed the only other people entertaining the lab-leak theory were crackpots or political hacks hoping to wield COVID-19 as a cudgel against China. President Donald Trump’s former political adviser Steve Bannon, for instance, joined forces with an exiled Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui to fuel claims that China had developed the disease as a bioweapon and purposefully unleashed it on the world. As proof, they paraded a Hong Kong scientist around right-wing media outlets until her manifest lack of expertise doomed the charade.” With the conspiracy nuts pushing the lab-leak theory, it made sense that the scientific community pushed back. But did we ever properly address the issue? Vanity Fair: The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins.