I was at a bar in Florida in mid-2020 during the COVID lockdowns, talking to this guy I assumed was just a local drunk. He looked like he might’ve been a mechanic, dirty fingernails, rough hands, & he definitely had a good buzz going.

Every time I went up to the bar to order drinks, I’d wear my mask. At one point, the guy looked at me & said, “you don’t need to wear a mask around here.” I replied, “Hey man, I’m just trying to be respectful.” He shot back, “Well, I don’t give a shit, don’t worry about that mask.”

Then he launched into this unexpected rant about gain-of-function research & asked me if I’d ever heard of it. I said no. He leaned in and said, “This COVID thing was made in a lab in China. I promise you, it’ll come out eventually. It was gain-of-function.”

At the time, I just chalked him up as a drunk, an articulate drunk, but a drunk.

Turns out, the guy was fkn right.