Trump White House purges COVID website. ‘Lab leak' theory replaced it
If you're looking to the White House for information on the COVID-19 pandemic, look elsewhere.
As of last week, the Trump administration replaced its longstanding information website on the pandemic with one promoting the much-contested 'lab leak' theory that the virus originated in Wuhan, China, before spreading worldwide, killing more than 7 million people.
The page, dubbed 'Lab Leak: The true origins of COVID-19″ features an image of President Donald Trump striding purposefully forward.
Some 1.1 million Americans died from COVID-19 during Trump's first term.
The old website, which was in place until Friday, connected people to information about COVID vaccines, treatment, testing and long COVID, NBC News reported.
The website also formerly helped people find pharmacies and community health centers that offered COVID tests, medical visits and medications at once, NBC News reported.
A sibling site, COVIDTESTS.gov, allowed people to order free COVID tests to their homes. That now redirects to the White House's lab leak website as well.
The new website declares that '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 prompted by Dr. [Anthony] Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally."
In a statement, the White House defended its decision, saying it had been 'very clear that, in contrast to the previous administration, we WILL be the most transparent administration in U.S. history. Nothing will stop us from innovating and finding creative ways to uphold our end of the bargain.'
The content on the website largely is derived from a report by the Republican-led Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which had been investigating the virus's origins for about two years.
That report concluded that the virus 'most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,' and included what it described as the " five strongest arguments in favor" of that conclusion.
The White House's new website repeats those top 5 arguments verbatim from the House Republicans' report.
The Central Intelligence Agency also recently shifted its stance to favor the lab leak theory, The New York Times reported.
The White House website also includes charges that the former Biden administration 'obstructed' the House committee's investigation of the virus's origins.
Despite the government's confident proclamations on the virus's origins, expert and academic opinion on its origin remains split.
Many scientists continue to believe that the virus emerged at a wild animal market in Wuhan. A September 2024 study by biologists Michael Worobey and Angela Rasmussen concluded it was traced to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
'This market wasn't just somewhere the virus eventually got to after spreading widely in Wuhan,' Worobey told NPR in 2024. 'There's very clear indications that that's where the jump successfully took place and human-to-human spread began.'
Another study published by more than 20 scientists in Cell, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, concluded that no epidemic had ever been caused by the escape of a novel virus.
It also concluded that there was no data to suggest Wuhan Institute of Virology or any other lab was working on COVID-19, Fortune reported.
'No case of laboratory escape has been documented following the sequencing of viral samples,' the study's authors wrote, according to Fortune. 'Despite extensive contact tracing of early cases during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no reported cases related to any laboratory staff at the WIV.'
Despite the shift from the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to track the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide and resulting hospitalization rates.
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