That's a good analysis. These types of people are unlikely to ever admit they were wrong or fooled about anything; they'll take their egos to their graves rather than concede anything.

I'm still not informed enough on topics like viruses to have a definitive opinion; truthfully there are inconsistencies on both views that I cannot reconcile or explain at this point. But I am always open to hearing people out, which is probably how I was able to arrive at many of my current beliefs.

I recommend venturing into the musing of Ken Wheeler (I shared one of his videos earlier) for some insights into unorthodox topics relating to metaphysics (waves, particles, atomism, relativity, etc.) which I think are much closer to reality than we what we all think/thought we know about the world. I don't think he's a flat earther, I have never heard him mention the subject, but his world view does go hand-in-hand with a lot of what us flat-earthers think. At this point my perspective is that much of modern science is on shaky ground.