Spot on, but it's all the more shameful when it's scientists who are engaging in the self-delusion. Thinking is hard, and it's literally what scientists do for a living.

There's a parallel backstory here that is less reported where many scientific institutions felt that their Chinese scientists were being unfairly targeted for IP theft for things that would normally be considered regular sharing of scientific information (collateral damage in the trade war). I worked with one of these scientists. One day the FBI raided our lab. It was scary, and it put my lab director on the war path (totally off topic, but probably many of these scientists are guilty of nefarious activity, FWIW). This created a situation where lots of scientists thought that Trump was fomenting racism to make a political statement (and probably he was). Therefore, any suggestion that covid was the "fault" of Chinese scientists seemed like part and parcel of Trump's race baiting (and it probably was). The trouble, obviously, is that just because you're an asshole, and just because you have ulterior motives, doesn't mean you're wrong, per se.