[SOLVED] Telegram Bot Error Code 409 Despite There Being a Single Instance Running

When running the below file I get the following error code 409 despite trying everything to ensure that I only have one local process making the infinity_polling() call. I have looked through all of the other stack overflow posts relating to this same error code 409 but I can't find any that match my situation or whose solutions work for me.

Notes:

MacOS Ventura 13.5
VSCode 1.81.1 (Universal)
Python 3.9.12 in my project's repo which is using pyenv 2.3.24
pip3 list contains pyTelegramBotAPI 4.13.0 and telebot 0.0.5, but my associate running the same code base has no issue with just pyTelegramBot 4.9.0 installed and no telebot.
pip 23.2.1 from /Users/*******/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
another member of my team runs the same code to perform tests from a different machine and that works just fine

What I've tried:

restarting my computer
tracking down every python and vscode process in activity monitor and killing them
deleting the whole local repo and re-cloning it
uninstalling pyTelegramBotAPI and telebot and re installing them via pip3
checking import statement: TelegramBot.py imports helper.py which imports fileNo2.py which imports TelegramBot.py with a from TelegramBot import * statement, but I've commented out that last statement to see if there is any issue with circular imports despite the if __name__ == '__main__': guard but nothing changes and I still get the error code 409.
using just pyTelegramBotAPI version 4.9.0 like my colleague and uninstalling telebot but this does not appear to affect anything.
adding a call to bot.remove_webhook() just above the bot.infinity_polling() line, but this also doesn't appear to change anything.

What I would prefer not trying:

I would be really happy if I don't end up having to create a new token or a new telegram bot: there are other people with whom I'm working that would make this complicated

What would help me understand this better:

Is the issue with the multiple bot instances running just a local issue? i.e. it's ok to have two separate machines running this file making separate getUpdates requests to the telegram servers but not two processes on the same machine?
How could another process that calls bot.infinity_polling() be running if I've restarted my computer? Doesn't restarting a computer kill all processes by definition?

The file:

import telebot
import emoji
import sys
import Helpers.helper as helper

TOKEN = '*************************************'

bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, parse_mode=None)

@bot.message_handler(commands=['help'])
def send_welcome(message):
    bot.reply_to(message, "// List of commands for the bot")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        print("before call to IP")
        bot.infinity_polling()
        print("after call to IP")
    except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
        pass

The terminal output (note that I use ctrl-C to kill it after one error message):

before call to IP
2023-08-26 14:40:01,906 (__init__.py:1083 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Threaded polling exception: A request to the Telegram API was unsuccessful. Error code: 409. Description: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request; make sure that only one bot instance is running"
2023-08-26 14:40:01,906 (__init__.py:1085 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Exception traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 1073, in __threaded_polling
    polling_thread.raise_exceptions()
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/util.py", line 108, in raise_exceptions
    raise self.exception_info
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/util.py", line 90, in run
    task(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 649, in __retrieve_updates
    updates = self.get_updates(offset=(self.last_update_id + 1),
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/__init__.py", line 623, in get_updates
    json_updates = apihelper.get_updates(self.token, offset, limit, timeout, allowed_updates, long_polling_timeout)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 321, in get_updates
    return _make_request(token, method_url, params=payload)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 162, in _make_request
    json_result = _check_result(method_name, result)
  File "/Users/anonymous/.pyenv/versions/3.9.12/lib/python3.9/site-packages/telebot/apihelper.py", line 189, in _check_result
    raise ApiTelegramException(method_name, result, result_json)
telebot.apihelper.ApiTelegramException: A request to the Telegram API was unsuccessful. Error code: 409. Description: Conflict: terminated by other getUpdates request; make sure that only one bot instance is running
"
^C2023-08-26 14:40:03,895 (__init__.py:966 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Infinity polling: polling exited"
2023-08-26 14:40:03,895 (__init__.py:968 MainThread) ERROR - TeleBot: "Break infinity polling"
after call to IP