I'm glad on not on the birdsite to read the hot takes, accusations, rejoinders, recriminations, and general nonsense around the DOE's lab leak announcement.
Because people are asking, a few brief thoughts.
First, there is obviously a political element to this. Announcing "I think X with low confidence" is not your usual strategy where communicating new science is concerned.
But then, the report wasn't about communicating new science, so we should be careful about framing the language that way.
It needs to be viewed in the context of operational briefing and even political vocabulary. The language was intended for often nontechnical administrators, primarily, trying to get across to them a certain idea about what the analysts came to believe.
It's like how "preponderance of evidence" has particular meaning inside a courtroom. The context needs to be considered.
But yes, that confidence statement should NEVER be left out of the reporting.
