There is just too much evidence of a novel virus. Maybe its all just propaganda, but there is SO MUCH evidence, coming from numerous at least somewhat independent sources, that its not reasonable to assume it is propaganda without actual evidence to support that. The ideas that it is made up are protests that the evidence that exists isn't enough, there is no actual evidence to support it being fake.

Consider:

• There are patents on it going back to 2000 showing that it was designed in a lab. It is unlikely that it is both designed in a lab, patented, have "impossible" (by chance) HIV similarities, etc. and be a fake virus.
• There are thousands of papers that publish TEM pictures of the virions. (Real or fake, there are thousands of them from independent labs.)
• There are thousands of independent labs that have published RNA sequence information from lab fractionation experiments. These are the exact same types of experiments that biologists do all the time for other purposes. People on here, and everywhere else quote all kinds of other studies as if they are law, yet the information was gathered by the exact same types of experimental protocols. But for some reason, even though these methods are standard practice and done literally millions of times all over the world, now, for this virus, they are somehow insufficient evidence and not to be believed under any circumstances.
• There are unique symptoms that have never been experienced before. I have heard from numerous people who have gotten sick that have told me they got sick in a way that they never have before. I have one friend who got sick who had been with someone who had come from china a month or so before the outbreak who had told me about this cold he had that was completely different than anything he experienced before. He talked about his symptoms. They were identical to covid. Then when the outbreak happened we were like, "dude, you were patient zero!" (LOL he might have actually been.)

There are millions of reports of unique symptoms and thousands of sequencing experiments from biological samples that produce the same damn sequence of RNA. It is so incredibly unlikely that all these independent labs and personal accounts are fake (intentional or by placebo). Its not impossible, but without actual evidence to support the "fake virus" theory, it smacks of wishing something to be to confirm biases, rather than using critical thinking.

Or there was a bioweapon release that initially was very deadly, but it mutated in a short time period, successively into something much less serious (mostly non lethal) but highly contagious. Add media + government+ corporate propaganda and there's the pandemic.