I think it's partially the consequence of covid fatigue. I went to college and got a science degree with people who I can no longer hold meaningful discussions

I think it's partially the consequence of covid fatigue. I went to college and got a science degree with people who I can no longer hold meaningful discussions about masks and vaccines. Perhaps it was the mixed messaging from the CDC in 2020, or the hesitancy to investigate lab origins. I know people who have gone full circle on both issues as their ideology evolved. People are primed to find "the reason" not to trust a scientific result they don't like and animal analogs are low hanging fruit you can grab without reading more than a sentence of a paper.