There's a difference between an intentional release of the virus, which is what conspiracy theorists say, and an accidental release, which is what this article postulates.
Do people have a tendency to dismiss both as if they were the same? Sure. But that's just because there's many more people saying it was intentional than accidental.
On the other hand, a lot of groups are quick to assign anything that doesnt fit their work view to some kind of alt/fringe label, so it's best to take that label with a grain of salt.
I heard a lot of people discussing this possibility including liberals and leftists, but there was and still is a taboo against discussing it publicly. Most of the public articles I saw on it were sensationalistic pieces from far-right news sources, and I flagged those. I upvoted one sanely written scientific paper on the subject, and posted this because it was also not sensationalistic.
The problem is that if we discuss the possibility or the suspicion in public, a lot of people are going to run all the way to it being a certainty. This could lead to some fairly destructive geopolitical consequences with the worst case scenario being a world war that could kill far more people than the virus. It is prudent to be careful and maintain a high standard of evidence just like we should in our justice system: "innocent until proven guilty."
