In the midst of a very good Xitter thread (it happens) rebutting Zeynep Tufecki’s pandemic revisionism, this bit of polling data on the origins of the pandemic is noteworthy:

Several obvious takeaways. First, support for a lab leak was always high (and it’s worth noting that, for HIV, there was an equivalent lab leak story). Second, it was much higher among Republicans than Democrats. Third, Democrats have moved towards the lab leak story, though not strongly. The last isn’t surprising given the occasional flareups of lab leak story and that there is very little pushback.

But to me, the point is that people always want an explanation that isn’t “bad luck followed by run-on-the-mill human incompetence, craveness, and greed.”

If HIV/AIDS is any indication, the lab leak story will be around for a long time, though, unlike HIV, there wasn’t a partisan slant, so it might not go away entirely.