“But the hard truth is that now is the right time to focus on this, and the beginning of the pandemic was simply not.” You’ve hit on one of the biggest issues

“But the hard truth is that now is the right time to focus on this, and the beginning of the pandemic was simply not.” You’ve hit on one of the biggest issues of the debate. Early on many of the posts acted like if everyone got on board with a lab leak theory or if it turned out to be a lab leak, then we would be able to get back to normal and also the government would be blameless for their terrible prep. Neither of those made sense. The virus could have been from a lab, from a meteor, from an angry pine cone god willing it into existence, or from evolution making a virus jump species. It wouldn’t effect the proper response or change the situation. While the virus is still a concern, we’re out of the acute phase so now it’s appropriate for a retrospective cause analysis in order to prevent it from happening again. The start it would have served no purpose except distract from what actually needed focus. Also, even today it seems almost moot whether it was from the market or the lab. That both are very plausible scenarios really should be enough to take appropriate measures for making sure neither could spawn a new one.