It was also damaged by the fact that a bunch of true crackpots asserted that COVID-19 was a bio-weapon released by either the Chinese or the US Military. There

It was also damaged by the fact that a bunch of true crackpots asserted that COVID-19 was a bio-weapon released by either the Chinese or the US Military. There is zero evidence for that, and it makes no sense. I heard someone once describe that kind of germ warfare as "attempting to use a grenade as a handgun." Yes it hurts your opponent, but... Someone will bring up the fact that China seems (if you buy their numbers) to have had good success containing COVID, but the thing is: there's no way they could have known this would be the case. What if they released it on purpose and their containment efforts failed? What if it mutated into something 5X as deadly and 100X as contagious? Viruses don't take loyalty oaths. Also: the global recession it caused probably did not do China any good in terms of net economic growth. Also also: why would China release it inside their own country? Why not drop it in some random airport somewhere? If they really wanted to target the USA the thing to do would have been to drop it in Bethesda, Maryland and then spread a lot of anti-US conspiracy theories. Lots of reasons it would have been a stupid idea to release it on purpose. China's leadership might be evil in some ways but they're not stupid or careless.