I don't think Yuval is trying to "big brain", just rationalize what the world will become under the need of "emergency" like here, Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus[1], he's not shown interest in "speculating" the origins of the virus or how the pandemic begins so compare this trait to some other "big brain" out there
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcc...