White House touts Covid-19 'lab leak' theory on revamped site
The Hindu
White House website promotes lab-leak theory, criticizes Biden's Covid policies, and sparks debate on virus origins.
The White House on Friday (April 19, 2025) unveiled a revamped COVID-19 website that promoted the contentious theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, framing it as the pandemic's "true origins."
Also Read | COVID origin: WHO says it’s unclear but lab leak theory needs study
The Covid.gov website, previously focused on promoting vaccine and testing information, now includes a full-length image of President Donald Trump and criticizes the pandemic policies implemented under former president Joe Biden.
The site also targets Anthony Fauci, Biden's former chief medical advisor, for advancing what it calls the "preferred narrative that Covid-19 originated naturally."
Also Read | The superspreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories
It presents five bullet points aimed at bolstering the lab leak theory, noting that Wuhan, the site of the first known coronavirus case, is also home to China's "foremost 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 said.
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