Washington: US President Donald Trump’s White House on Friday launched a Covid-19 website that blames the origins of the coronavirus on a lab leak in Wuhan, China. The site also criticises former President Joe Biden, former top US health official Anthony Fauci, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for allegedly suppressing the truth about the virus's origins.

Lab-leak theory promoted on Covid-19 webpage

The updated webpage, part of a site initially created to support Covid-19 vaccination efforts, now displays a banner titled “LAB LEAK, The True Origins of Covid-19,” featuring President Trump. The page is entirely focused on the lab-leak theory and reflects a shift in official narrative following recent developments.

This move comes weeks after a CIA report stated that the lab-leak was likely. Previously, the agency had said it lacked enough information to determine the virus’s origin.

Accusations against Fauci and Biden

The new webpage accuses former Chief Medical Advisor Dr Fauci and President Biden of concealing information about the virus’s origin. It claims the previous administration “engaged in a multi-year campaign of delay, confusion and non-responsiveness” to hide the truth.

“This website shows the true origins of Covid-19 and how Democrats and the media discredited alternative health treatments and the lab-leak theory,” the White House said in a statement.

The site also criticises the scientific article The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, claiming it was “used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab-leak theory,” and that it “was promoted by Dr Fauci to push the preferred narrative that Covid-19 originated naturally.”

Five points supporting the lab-leak theory

The website lists five key arguments suggesting that the coronavirus did not have a natural origin:

  • The virus has a biological feature that is not found in nature.
  • All Covid-19 cases come from a single introduction into humans, unlike previous pandemics that involved multiple spillover events.
  • Wuhan is home to China’s top SARS research lab, which has conducted gain-of-function research without proper safety measures.
  • Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology reportedly showed Covid-like symptoms in autumn 2019, before the virus was found at the wet market.
  • If Covid-19 had a natural origin, scientific evidence would have likely appeared by now—but it has not.
  • The launch of the new page underscores the Trump administration’s continued efforts to push the lab-leak theory and shift blame onto China and its allies.
     

IANS