These are great questions. I’m not the best qualified to answer this (maybe Steve and Christy), but here is my reaction.
–Covid conspiracy folks said that someone was responsible for spreading the virus maliciously. In fact, many Chinese believe that American troops spread it intentionally in a parade in China just before the outbreak in Wuhan. There is no evidence for malicious spread in either case.
That is a far cry from saying it could have accidentally escaped from the lab. However, the evidence still points to a nature-to-man jump. On top of that, who cares if it did jump from a lab by accident? There are tons of protocols out there to prevent that–and we know how to do so. It is only conspiracy theorists that say it could have been done maliciously–and no one benefits from that sort of a thing.
–I didn’t think that there were going to be mandates for the passport idea, either, but you can see that as we were not able to get Covid under control, and more than 600,000 people have died–why mandating a passport in crowded situations is a good idea. It’s not, however, what the conspiracy theorists think–it’s not for control. In fact, most government folks that follow the scientists seem to have been in danger of losing their positions, not gaining power. A health department official in our area was nearly run off the road by an anti-masker (as @Kathryn_Applegate wrote). I honor those wise leaders who put their careers at risk for making unpopular decisions.
Thanks.