White House launches new website promoting lab leak theory on COVID-19 origins
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the WHO team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in Hubei province of China on February 3, 2021. (AFP Photo)
The White House on Friday launched an updated Covid-19 website, pushing the controversial theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, framing it as the “true origin” of the pandemic.
Previously focused on vaccine and testing information, the Covid.gov website now features a full-length image of former President Donald Trump and criticizes pandemic policies under President Joe Biden. The site also targets Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s former chief medical advisor, accusing him of promoting the “preferred narrative” that Covid-19 originated naturally.
The revamped site highlights five key points to support the lab-leak theory, pointing out that Wuhan, the site of the first known Covid-19 case, is home to China’s leading SARS research lab and has a history of conducting research 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 website asserts.
Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the lab-leak theory has gained mainstream traction in the United States. Despite ongoing scientific and political debate, U.S. agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Energy have expressed varying levels of support for the theory.
China says theory ‘extremely unlikely’
Earlier this year, the Central Intelligence Agency revised its stance, stating it was “more likely” Covid-19 originated from a Chinese lab rather than from animal transmission.
This assessment drew criticism from China, which called the lab-leak theory “extremely unlikely” and urged the U.S. to “stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing.”
The U.S. and China remain embroiled in a significant trade war. On Thursday, Washington announced new port fees for Chinese-linked ships and increased tariffs on Chinese goods.
The updated White House site also targets the mask and social distancing mandates enacted at the pandemic’s start in 2020. It includes an animated map of Wuhan, which pulsates on the screen.
Under a section titled “Covid-19 Misinformation,” the website accuses public health officials under the previous administration of demonizing “alternative treatments” and working with social media companies to suppress dissenting views on the pandemic—a claim often echoed by U.S. conservatives.
The Biden administration has rejected allegations of censoring conservative viewpoints.
The website’s overhaul comes amid significant layoffs at major U.S. health agencies, part of a sweeping restructuring under the Trump administration that is set to eliminate 10,000 jobs. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose rhetoric on vaccines has drawn concerns from health experts, said the layoffs are part of a broader reform aimed at refocusing efforts on chronic disease prevention.
More than one million people in the U.S. and millions more worldwide have died from Covid-19 and related illnesses.
