Re. Novichok, if there wasn't video evidence of two known Russian agents the Porton Down theory might be more plausible. But Porton Down says they have nothing to do with it and we should just accept their word as fact, just as we have to accept the word of the Wuhan Institute of Virology that there was no possibility of lab leak there.

Or maybe given the global significance of Covid-19, and the obvious conflict of interest for WIV, and especially given that the original SARS escaped labs at least 6 times, maybe some independent auditing and investigation should be done?