I'd use the same argument as you, had I not seen a person loose all the credibility very recently.

There was a respected molecular geneticist in czechia. She was not only the head of a private lab, but acted as a forensic expert for the court. When the covid hit, her lab has developed a new, unique way, to test for it. Then there was a conflict with the government, who temporarily banned her lab from conducting the tests. (Governments banning private labs from testing for covid was a thing in europe for some reason)

All of a sudden she started to claim sars-cov2 was artificially made, without providing any relevant evidence. The disinformation media outlets quickly took notice, decided to take advantage of her reputation, and made her a posterchild for all the covid related conspiracy theories. Things progressed very fast from this point on.

Long story short, she's been a guest in an interview conducted by a religious cult recently, in which she has shunned her entire professional life, and proceeded to explain how our reality is just a simulation, and we have to steer clear from the bad aliens, trying to prevent us from increasing our vibrations, to enter the 5th dimension.

It took 2,5 years for her to go from a respected scientist to publicly shilling for a literal cult.