My personal conspiracy theory is that the Chinese government did engineer (or at least selectively cultivate) COVID
The theory I'd believe more is that the U S of A govt or one of its agencies engineered and released it in China.
China and India are growing economies, with decent populations and a pandemic would seriously delay their growth and help the U S of A keep it's top place for a bit longer or destroy its competitors.
I've heard the theory being given decent thought by non-western people. And it's equally, if not, more believable than the other one.
The US is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons on civillians, so them using biological weapons on civillians would not be a big moral barrier for them or a big stretch to think about.
They probably didn't think it'd spread this much and their own citizens n even president would be idiotic enough to be against vaccines and masks, when people were dying.
They probably didn't expect their president to be idiotic enough to be against vaccines and recommend stuff like bleach.
They're a developed nation and could've had better control.
They were able to hinder Chinese trade a bit.
And didn't they try and fail to kill Castro in many stupid ass ways?
I think them doing it is more likely than China doing it to their own, considering the trade issues that the virus caused for China at the time.
And again, they were the first to use nuclear weapons on civillians. Did it twice even.
I don't think they'd have an qualms about using biological weapons, if they thought that it'd give them an edge.
They also can float the 'China virus' conspiracy to confuse the public and make them anti-China too.