by I. Edwards
The Trump administration has changed two main federal web sites for COVID data with a brand new web page that promotes the speculation that the virus got here from a lab in China.
COVID.gov and COVIDtests.gov, which as soon as helped individuals order COVID checks and discover public well being data, now redirect to a brand new web page titled “Lab Leak.” The web page exhibits a picture of President Donald Trump together with the phrases “the true origins of COVID-19.”
The brand new website claims the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the place COVID analysis had been ongoing. It raises considerations about lab security and references latest CIA assist for the lab leak concept, The New York Instances reported.
However the website does not share key particulars comparable to genetic information from a Wuhan wild-animal market the place lots of the first COVID instances had been discovered.
Many scientists and several other intelligence companies nonetheless consider the virus more than likely jumped from animals to people on the market, a concept backed by genetics and patterns in early instances.
Some authorities companies, just like the FBI and Power Division, have expressed some assist for the lab leak concept.
The CIA just lately shifted to supporting the lab concept, however with “low confidence” and no new proof.
The brand new web site additionally stated that some staff “were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019.”
However a 2023 declassified report from the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence stated there was no signal that the Wuhan lab ever had the virus or one intently associated to it earlier than the outbreak.
The brand new web site additionally contains inaccurate claims, comparable to “the virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.” The Instances famous that this seems to be a reference to a function that helps the virus get inside cells, often called the furin cleavage website.
Scientists say these options are present in different coronaviruses and should not indicators of lab engineering, The Instances reported.
The truth is, researchers say a lab-made virus would possible lack that function totally.
The web site additionally assaults public well being figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Illness and presidential advisor, and criticizes pandemic security measures like lockdowns and carrying masks.
Researchers have proven that many early COVID sufferers lived close to the Wuhan market, and virus samples discovered there included genetic materials from animals like raccoon canines. This additional helps the concept of animal-to-human unfold.
Extra data:
The Nationwide Institutes of Well being has extra on the origin of COVID.
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Federal COVID web sites now promote lab leak concept (2025, April 22)
retrieved 22 April 2025
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