I have no trouble with comedians offering political views but for National Review to platform Stewart's opinions on scientists “going to kill us all” is a disservice to dealing with the pandemic. Scientists who've reviewed the “lab leak hypothesis” have found zero evidence to support the accusations, and plenty of evidence that COVID sprang on us the same way that EVERY OTHER novel virus did: via crossover from another species, an existing virus morphing as they do, that let them infect humans efficiently. But the issue is not random people's opinions—including mine—of the likelihood of A vs B. What matters is that we create a pathway to understanding what actually DID happen, that skilled researchers, not Keystone Kop CyberNinjas fueled by partisan ambition take evidence wherever it leads us. And that is what galls me the worst. Virtually ALL the proponents of Chinese and scientists' culpability have denied the efforts to engage experts in actually finding out. They dismiss the WHO as in China's pocket (not recognizing how we bullied them into studying HCQ after their staff said it didn't appear to have merit). They claim the scientists who know most about viruses are financially conflicted because they run non-profits(?!?) that work with research labs. And our politicians attack the individuals and institutions that would need to collaborate on any actual scientific effort. So above, by “disservice,” I mean that it's not intended to inform people about COVID, but to justify a propagandistic argument meant for domestic political purposes. Baseless (which again, does NOT mean proven false) allegations, meant to obscure and delay actual understanding. We have a long list of similar right-wing propaganda that is utterly disconnected from truth and continues to harm our national purpose. Birtherism. Denial of Climate Change. Pizzagate & its satanism claims. Attacking NOAA for not kowtowing to Trump forecasting Dorian in Alabama. Literally calling for Fauci's head because he spoke the truth on COVID. Silencing of US officials about the severity of COVID. These are the work of authoritarianism. And of course, most pernicious, that the 2020 election was fraudulent, which precipitated an insurrection by those who couldn't see it as hyperbole. Credder users should not repeat our nation's mistakes on this issue.

The article mentions that JStew was joking, but the headline doesn’t capture that. JStew is definitely suspect of China, but his presentation was definitely jokey so it’s hard to write that headline given the context.