Mainstream media entities are claiming Republican Senator Tom Cotton is trafficking in “conspiracy theories” for questioning the source of the coronavirus’ origins.

Cotton has questioned the official narrative stating that the deadly coronavirus outbreak originated in a wet food market in Wuhan, China. He’s suggested that it’s possible the disease originated in a Chinese government “superlab” a few miles away that conducts research in human infectious diseases.

Cotton has pointed out that the Chinese government is consistently declining offers of scientific and medical aid to combat the lethal epidemic, raising suspicions as to their transparency.

Such a suggestion is enough to label Cotton a “conspiracy theorist” in the eyes of outlets such as Slate and the New York Times. A headline from the Times called Cotton’s question a “fringe theory,” even though Cotton references epidemiologists who believe the virus didn’t originally enter human transmission at the food market. The Washington Post also ran a story Monday claiming that Cotton is trafficking in conspiracy theories.

It’s remarkable that nominally respectable media entities such as the New York Times are quick to dismiss entirely plausible theories of the coronavirus’s origins. If anything, an official narrative on the virus’s origins from the authoritarian communist government of China should be treated with inherent skepticism, especially considering that China is widely suspected of covering up the gravity of the situation and even arresting reporters who seek to document the epidemic and the government’s response.

Certainly it’s possible that the disease spread into humans from the consumption of animals such as bats, a prevailing theory for the virus’s origins. But the general public has no reason to entirely discount any plausible theory for the origins of the virus.