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The White House on Friday launched a revamped version of its Covid-19 website, placing the controversial lab-leak theory at the centre of its narrative on the pandemic’s origins. The update marks a sharp shift in tone, accusing former president Joe Biden and his top medical advisor, Dr Anthony Fauci, of suppressing debate over the virus’s origin and mishandling pandemic responses.
The new page on Covid.gov, which previously served as a public resource for vaccines and testing, now features a prominent image of President Donald Trump and a banner declaring: “LAB LEAK, The True Origins of Covid-19.”
“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 outlines five key arguments to support the lab-leak claim, citing Wuhan’s proximity to China’s top SARS research lab, claims of inadequate biosafety protocols, and assertions that early infections stemmed from a single introduction into humans—suggesting a controlled environment rather than natural spillover.
“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 alleges.
It also accuses Biden-era public health officials of censoring dissent and engaging in a “multi-year campaign of delay, confusion and non-responsiveness.”
The move comes weeks after the CIA updated its assessment, stating it was now “more likely” that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab—reversing its earlier position that there was insufficient evidence to determine Covid-19’s origin. The FBI and the Department of Energy had previously expressed similar views, although confidence levels vary.
China has repeatedly rejected the lab-leak theory, calling it “extremely unlikely,” and urged the United States to stop politicising the issue of origin tracing.
The updated site also criticises early pandemic measures such as mask mandates and social distancing, and features an animated map of Wuhan. A section titled “Covid-19 misinformation” accuses the previous administration of colluding with social media platforms to suppress alternative views and promote only official guidance.
Jamie Metzl, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said: “I welcome all efforts to dig deeper. 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,” speaking to NPR.
The rollout of the site comes amid sweeping restructuring efforts at US health agencies under Trump’s administration, with around 10,000 job cuts reportedly planned. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his vaccine scepticism, has said the shake-up is part of a wider push to prioritise chronic disease prevention.
Covid-19 and related illnesses have claimed more than one million lives in the US, with millions more affected worldwide.
The website 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 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. The website asserts that if there were evidence supporting a natural origin for Covid-19, it would have emerged by now. The lack of such evidence, according to the site, further strengthens the lab-leak theory.
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