A well-respected science writer has published a thoughtful and convincing piece this week that helps confirm what most people with common sense have long believed: COVID-19 wasn’t just randomly discovered in a Chinese wet market; it escaped from a human lab.

The lab-leak theory was always the most plausible one, but those who raised it as a possible explanation were excoriated by Democrats and media know-it-alls. For no good reason at all, the intelligentsia dismissed it as a baseless conspiracy theory. Remember what happened to Sen. Tom Cotton when he dared to suggest the Chinese government was lying about how the coronavirus originated? The New York Times accused him of appealing to tin-foil-hat-wearing kooks with his “fringe theory.” The Washington Post falsely claimed Cotton’s statements had been debunked.