SA, caution is always needed. Your citation of Latham and Wilson is itself based on articles in Nature and Science, see the article’s footnote (1).
If data has been hidden, all anyone will be able to find is evidence of a cover-up, since scientific papers shouldn’t stand if based upon hidden data.
I’ll remain sceptical too, but the initial campaign to dismiss lab origin as a conspiracy theory is a stain upon the scientific establishment – and please note my use of the word ‘establishment’ rather than ‘community’. But with effort, stains can be cleansed.
The supremacy of neoliberalism corrupts everything, so we must accept that it also corrupts science. On the other hand, those who offhandedly dismiss science in support of their conspiracy theories must likewise accept that science’s continual reference to evidence gives it a far greater degree of accuracy than other spheres, most notably politics.