A transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (UK B.1.1.7 variant), remoted from a affected person pattern and cultivated in cell tradition. Credit score: NIAID
The White Home on Friday unveiled a revamped COVID-19 web site that promoted the contentious principle that the virus leaked from a Chinese language laboratory, framing it because the pandemic’s “true origins.”
The COVID.gov web site, beforehand centered on selling vaccine and testing data, now features a full-length picture of President Donald Trump and criticizes the pandemic insurance policies applied underneath former president Joe Biden.
The positioning additionally targets Anthony Fauci, Biden’s former chief medical advisor, for advancing what it calls the “preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally.”
It presents 5 bullet factors aimed toward bolstering the lab leak principle, noting that Wuhan, the positioning of the primary identified coronavirus case, can be residence to China’s “foremost SARS research lab” and has a historical past of conducting analysis at “inadequate biosafety levels.”
“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn’t,” the web site stated.
The lab-leak principle, as soon as dismissed as a conspiracy principle, has lately gained mainstream traction in the US.
At the same time as the controversy stays unresolved—scientifically and politically—US companies such because the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Division of Vitality have come out in assist of the speculation, albeit with various ranges of confidence.
Earlier this 12 months, the Central Intelligence Company shifted its official stance on the virus’s origin, saying that it was “more likely” leaked from a Chinese language lab than transmission from animals.
The evaluation drew criticism from China, which stated it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 got here from a laboratory.
Beijing additionally urged the US to “stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing.”
America and China are at the moment locked in a significant commerce conflict, with Washington asserting 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,” stated Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council in response to the revamped White Home web site.
“But it would be a terrible shame if such efforts distracted from essential work to help prevent further infections and treat people suffering from COVID-19 and long 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 at first of the pandemic in 2020. There’s additionally a map of Wuhan that’s animated to throb.
Beneath a bit titled “COVID-19 misinformation,” it additionally accused public well being officers underneath the earlier administration of demonizing “alternative treatments” and colluding with social media corporations to censor dissenting views in regards to the pandemic—a cost steadily 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 companies, because the Trump administration embarks on a sweeping and scientifically contested restructuring that may reduce 10,000 jobs.
Well being secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has alarmed well being specialists along with his rhetoric downplaying the significance of vaccines—stated the layoffs had been a part of a significant 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 hundreds of thousands extra fell sufferer to the illness world wide.
© 2025 AFP
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White Home touts COVID-19 ‘lab leak’ principle on revamped website (2025, April 19)
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