Not just the media, folks, also the rest of our "sense making apparatus".
Wikipedia has been suppressing lab leak discussion, and still to this moment will not allow the old Lab Leak Hypothesis page back. It still redirects to a declared "Misinformation!" page https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=COVID-19_lab_leak...
And guess where else lab leak was suppressed? Here on HN. Yes, dang, you suppressed discussion of a perfectly reasonable hypothesis many times.
So, while I have your attention, the real problem vis a vis Covid19 is not the lab leak. The real problem is "gain of function" research, using gene splicing to make more virulent-to-humans pathogens. And don't read into anything I'm saying, please pay attention to literally what I say here; if you have to reword what I say to cast doubt, you're not playing fair.
This virus was likely man-made because gain of function man made viruses are quite common in research; and this is not a coverup conspiracy caused by the Chinese tendency for face-saving, swept under the carpet, "truths", though there is plenty of that. This scandal was caused by western experts: our best virologists are themselves engaging in gain of function research right here in our very own cities. If you ask them, as the media did, "what likely happened here", their answer is not going to point the finger at themselves, too much funding is at stake.
Good background and in-depth research on the gain of function and lab leak hypotheses was carried out and published on the web over a year ago by Yuri Deigin https://yurideigin.medium.com/lab-made-cov2-genealogy-throug... and it was covered on Bret Weinstein's Dark Horse podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5SRrsr-Iug
And surprisingly, it is easy for lay people to read/listen and follow because Yuri Deigan is not a virologist, just a really smart educated guy.
and it wasn't just the mainstream media and HN and wikipedia who suppressed the information from you all; sadly it was also because of the politicization, your politicization, of this crisis. If Trump said something, to most of you it just had to be wrong, and for some reason, opening our economy to the Chinese and disliking Russia were sacred cows to the Democrats, and anything Trump did that went the other way just had to be undone.
That is what covered up this most obvious and likely HYPOTHESIS from being discussed: that of a man made, gain of function virus escaping from a lab in Wuhan where the virus broke out.
Was there any Chinese military goal here, as a true conspiracy theory would allege? Sadly, frankly, there doesn't need to be. That's because advanced virology research is of deep interest to every military around the world. See the history of anthrax research. It is publicly acknowledged that it's part and parcel of germ warfare research both for defensive and offensive purposes.