No, this is nonsense. Openly discussed where? In May 2020 virologists had written an open letter that stated in no uncertain terms that anyone claiming it could

No, this is nonsense. Openly discussed where? In May 2020 virologists had written an open letter that stated in no uncertain terms that anyone claiming it could have come from a lab was spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories. This in turn caused Facebook to simply ban any discussion of the possibility entirely. No journal or newspaper would publish anything about this at all. Discussion was driven underground, which is why D.R.A.S.T.I.C. (who found most of the evidence for it) was made up of anonymous people. Chasing this story resulted in a New York Times reporter being fired; his investigation eventually had to be published on his own Medium blog and in some physics journal. The lab leak theory was utterly and completely squashed in the public realm by nothing more substantial than a bunch of virologists saying "it wasn't us". Trying to claim it was never suppressed is an Orwellian attempt to rewrite of history.