White House touts COVID-19 ‘lab leak’ theory on revamped site

The White Home on Friday unveiled a revamped COVID-19 web site that promoted the contentious idea that the virus leaked from a Chinese language laboratory, framing it because the pandemic’s “true origins.”

The COVID.gov web site, beforehand targeted on selling vaccine and testing data, now features a full-length picture of President Donald Trump and criticizes the pandemic insurance policies carried out below former president Joe Biden.

The positioning additionally targets Anthony Fauci, Biden’s former chief medical advisor, for advancing what it calls the “most well-liked narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally.”

It presents 5 bullet factors aimed toward bolstering the lab leak idea, noting that Wuhan, the location of the primary recognized coronavirus case, can also be residence to China’s “foremost SARS analysis lab” and has a historical past of conducting analysis at “insufficient biosafety ranges.”

“By almost all measures of science, if there was proof of a pure origin it could have already surfaced. However it hasn’t,” the web site mentioned.

The lab-leak idea, as soon as dismissed as a conspiracy idea, has just lately gained mainstream traction in the US.

Whilst the controversy stays unresolved—scientifically and politically—US businesses such because the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Division of Vitality have come out in help of the idea, albeit with various ranges of confidence.

Earlier this yr, the Central Intelligence Company shifted its official stance on the virus’s origin, saying that it was “extra probably” leaked from a Chinese language lab than transmission from animals.

The evaluation drew criticism from China, which mentioned it was “extraordinarily unlikely” COVID-19 got here from a laboratory.

Beijing additionally urged the US to “cease politicizing and instrumentalizing the difficulty of origin-tracing.”

The USA and China are at present locked in a serious commerce struggle, with Washington saying Thursday new port charges for Chinese language-linked ships and elevated tariffs for Chinese language items.

‘Horrible disgrace’

“I welcome all efforts to dig deeper,” mentioned Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council in response to the revamped White Home web site.

“However it could be a horrible disgrace if such efforts distracted from important work to assist forestall additional infections and deal with folks affected by COVID-19 and lengthy COVID,” he advised NPR.

The brand new website, which apparently seeks to redefine the political narrative about COVID-19, additionally criticized the masks and social distancing mandates launched in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. There’s additionally a map of Wuhan that’s animated to throb.

Underneath a piece titled “COVID-19 misinformation,” it additionally accused public well being officers below the earlier administration of demonizing “different remedies” and colluding with social media firms to censor dissenting views concerning the pandemic—a cost ceaselessly echoed by US conservatives.

The Biden administration has beforehand rejected the cost that it was suppressing or censoring conservative views.

The web site revamp comes after layoffs started earlier this month at main US well being businesses, because the Trump administration embarks on a sweeping and scientifically contested restructuring that can reduce 10,000 jobs.

Well being secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has alarmed well being specialists together with his rhetoric downplaying the significance of vaccines—mentioned the layoffs have been a part of a serious reform of his division, aiming to refocus efforts on power illness prevention.

Greater than 1 million folks died of COVID-19 and associated sicknesses in the US, and tens of millions extra fell sufferer to the illness all over the world.

© 2025 AFP