I agree there was no tangible evidence, but there was circumstantial evidence, the lab's proximity to Wuhan and also scientists from China making the claims.
The problem is large chunk of the media didn't say, as you are saying, that there was no evidence, which would be fine to argue. They just said it didn't come from lab, period, full stop. There is a difference from saying there is no proof and that something didn't happen. They also labelled anybody who said it came from a lab a racist or xenophobe. There was no debate or discussion in the public sphere. People were literally banned off social media for saying it came from a lab.
I don't think any evidence that it spread from an animal to humans discounts the lab leak. The lab could have an animal which infected a human worked at the lab. There are also other potentials like an infected animal escaped the lab and infected somebody outside. Both of these would still be lab leaks.
We also knew pretty early on that China was hiding things. Suggesting it was gradual is wrong. There were a lot of conspiracy theories about the death of Dr. Li Wenliang in early February 2020, with the suggestion that China killed him to stop him from exposing China further. Dr. Li-Meng Yan has also been talking since April 2020 about China covering up things. Those are the earliest substantial claims about China covering up things that I am aware of, but there may be earlier cases I am forgetting.
I agree that today we have seen no real evidence and that we probably will never know the truth. China did that to themselves by covering up evidence and having shills in the WHO instead of letting all the evidence come out.
The problem is large chunk of the media didn't say, as you are saying, that there was no evidence, which would be fine to argue. They just said it didn't come from lab, period, full stop. There is a difference from saying there is no proof and that something didn't happen. They also labelled anybody who said it came from a lab a racist or xenophobe. There was no debate or discussion in the public sphere. People were literally banned off social media for saying it came from a lab.
I don't think any evidence that it spread from an animal to humans discounts the lab leak. The lab could have an animal which infected a human worked at the lab. There are also other potentials like an infected animal escaped the lab and infected somebody outside. Both of these would still be lab leaks.
We also knew pretty early on that China was hiding things. Suggesting it was gradual is wrong. There were a lot of conspiracy theories about the death of Dr. Li Wenliang in early February 2020, with the suggestion that China killed him to stop him from exposing China further. Dr. Li-Meng Yan has also been talking since April 2020 about China covering up things. Those are the earliest substantial claims about China covering up things that I am aware of, but there may be earlier cases I am forgetting.
I agree that today we have seen no real evidence and that we probably will never know the truth. China did that to themselves by covering up evidence and having shills in the WHO instead of letting all the evidence come out.