you’ve been clearly called out on it and have no substantive way to defend what you said.
This needs to work both ways. Either you require each person to defend their statements all the time, or if you choose sometimes yes to and sometimes not to then set that as the expectation. For example:
(I'm not looking to be stoned here), but I've politely called out your below statement as its incorrect but you chose not to respond to it,
(The vast majority of posters on the DDF COVID board are in the “Corona-denier” category
which is your call. Its fine by me, but then don't expect others to always come with proofs either. Playing field needs to be level - if you can ignore sometimes then so can others.
That doesn't mean I agree that what was originally written is true or correct but just like you can continue to let your incorrect statement stand without defending it, then so can theirs.