I'm curious as to why the arrival of developments like a new variant would make it appropriate to halt investigations into the original issue (like where can we find a physical sample of RaTG13, and why wasn't its sequence published until the beginning of last year?).
I don't think we should halt investigations. But the Baker article is not a serious investigation, it's a piece of pop-sci that is quite careless about scientific details. It is not helpful to those trying to understand the truth, but it might be an entertaining read or useful for other purposes.
