White House website blames China for Covid-19 'lab leak'
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Washington: On Friday, the White House under President Donald Trump unveiled a revamped Covid-19 website, asserting that the coronavirus originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.
The site includes a dedicated page to the lab-leak theory, accompanied by a banner titled "LAB LEAK, The True Origins of Covid-19", featuring President Trump.
The website criticises former President Joe Biden, ex-top health official Anthony Fauci, and the World Health Organisation for allegedly suppressing information about the virus's origins.
This update follows a recent CIA report suggesting that a lab leak was likely, though the agency previously stated it lacked sufficient evidence to confirm the virus's origin.
Previously serving as a resource for Covid-19 vaccination efforts, the site has now shifted focus to promoting the lab-leak theory.
The 'lab-leak' page also accuses former Chief Medical Advisor Dr Fauci and Biden of covering up the origins of coronavirus.
It says that the previous administration 'engaged in a multi-year campaign of delay, confusion and non-responsiveness' to conceal the truth.
"The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2 publication, which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab-leak theory, was promoted by Dr Fauci to push the preferred narrative that Covid-19 originated naturally," the site said.
It further lists five key points, suggesting that Covid-19's origins were not natural.
1. The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.
2. According to the data, all cases of Covid-19 stem from a single introduction into humans, which is contrary to previous pandemics, where there were multiple spillover events.
3. Wuhan is home to China's foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) without adequate biosafety.
4. The researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were sick with Covid-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before Covid-19 was discovered at the wet market.
5. By nearly all measures of science, any evidence suggesting a natural origin of coronavirus would have already surfaced. But it hasn't.
(inputs from IANS)
