One of the strongest indicators is China's fierce opposition to an independent investigation in to the origins of the virus. Why wouldn't they want that?

I'm inclined to agree with you based on my political views, but in this case.... Chinese were pretty reserved about outsiders meddling in their internal affairs already before Covid, so this isn't necessarily indicative.

China has claimed that COVID started in anywhere but China.

Australia: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9024311/China-claim...

India: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8993667/Now-Chinese...

Italy: https://www.the-sun.com/news/1824950/china-accuses-italy-sta...

US Army: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-claims-that-the-u...

Since the common belief is that COVID originated in China, they stand to benefit from an independent inquiry that proves any of their above claims.

Here is a new article from the Associated Press "China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins".

https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-coronavirus-pandem...

How would they benefit?

I don't think that's a strong indicator. Why would you want an investigation that likely requires you to grant foreign investigators access to your bioweapon labs and their records?

No other government downplayed and covered up?

Brazil didn't covered up, but it sure downplayed. Actually is still in the downplay process.

Ouch, my drink just came out of my nose.

That's slightly different depending on the country i.e. we have Trump on record confessing about doing both to woodward over the phone but it's not like it came from a US lab.

What is this even supposed to mean or imply here?

Using this logic isn’t it likely it came from the US? Simultaneously saying it’s nothing and China did it seems suspicious.

The whole world said it was nothing until February or so, when Italy had its first casualties. The reason for this was the WHO's downplaying of the virus.

The US response was shit but A) we have a timeline of events so we know it came from China B) the US didn’t cover things up, rather some politicians (trump for one) massively downplayed the virus.

To be clear I’m just playing devils advocate, but how can we be certain the virus originated in Wuhan? There's quite possibly information I'm not aware of that refutes this, but isn’t it equally likely that it was first discovered there and it originated somewhere else given the number of asymptomatic cases?

I find it difficult to understand how anyone is going to take action when the media trumpets that COVID isn't an issue much of January and February of this year. [1][2][3]

[1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/time-for-a-reality-che...

[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/world/europe/coronavirus-...

[3]: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/29/8008132...

It wasn't just Trump downplaying. I have emails from my employer about it from early February saying that "common influenza" still represented a greater risk. This was based on CDC/medical expert advise, no doubt.

The local governments downplay anything and everything to not look bad so I don’t think that is a particularly strong claim.