Latest news with #TheProximalOriginofSARS-CoV-2
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
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, 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. Elon Musk could soon leave DOGE because of 'nasty and unethical attacks' Why a pro-Trump ex-Pentagon official is now 'exiled' from the MAGA movement Debt collection will soon start for defaulted student loans. Here's when. Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty to run for reelection Trump's Republican critics hit his flip-flop on weaponizing the IRS
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New White House website pushes COVID-19 lab leak theory
April 19 (UPI) -- The federal government's website has been replaced with a new page promoting the narrative the virus was manufactured in and was released from a Chinese lab. "A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of COVID-19. Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability," reads the new White House page entitled "Lab Leak: The True Origins of COVID-19." The previous website provided people with information about vaccines, where to obtain free COVID-19 tests and facts about related health issues stemming from the virus, among other things. The new site seeks to discredit the National Institutes of Health's narrative under former President Joe Biden and his chief medical officer and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. "'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. Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated in nature," reads the new website. Under the Biden administration, the official position was that the respiratory virus likely had a natural origin. There has never been a complete consensus on the origins COVID-19 with supporters of both theories dug in on either side. The Trump administration's new website draws attention to five points, including suggesting that any natural origin would have since been pinned down. "By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn't," reads the website. It suggests the virus likely originated inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. "[Wuhan] researchers were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market," reads the website. The new site also draws into question an academic paper published in 2020. Fauci contributed as an editor and was a proponent of the journal article, "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2." The U.S. intelligence community remains divided on the origins of the virus, that caused a global pandemic. A 2021 report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence favored the natural origin theory but had dissenters. Neither the NIH or Fauci had commented publicly as of 2 p.m. EDT Saturday. "Glad to see the White House is finally acknowledging what's been obvious for years. Next step is to acknowledge the injuries caused by the COVID injection so that the injured can get helped and treated," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wrote on X.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump Rewrites History With Deranged COVID.Gov Makeover
President Donald Trump on Friday replaced the government's utilitarian COVID-19 website with a gaudy page that pushes a disputed theory about the virus's origins. The web address no longer features information on vaccines and testing. Now, it takes you to a site that says COVID-19 leaked out of a lab in China, disparages Dr. Anthony Fauci, and accuses the Biden administration of spreading 'misinformation.' At the top of the page is a huge illustration of Trump striding between the words 'Lab Leak' in all-caps block letters. A smaller subtitle near the president's feet reads, 'the true origins of Covid-19.' While the page presents it as a settled fact that the virus emerged out of an infectious disease lab in Wuhan, China, the case is hardly closed. The so-called lab leak theory has circulated since the early days of the pandemic, because the first cases of the virus were detected in Wuhan. While American intelligence agencies have remained open to the possibility that COVID-19 could have originated from lab research, the claim pushed by some lab leak proponents that it was created as a 'biological weapon' has been dismissed. In January, the CIA announced that its analysts believed it was more likely that the virus emerged out of a lab than a Wuhan wet market with live animals, which is a competing theory. However, the World Health Organization has said that 'all hypotheses remain open.' Trump's page spurns skepticism. 'By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn't,' it says. The site also takes aim at several government officials for their responses to the pandemic, chiefly Fauci and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. It alleges that a famous scientific study concluding that the virus likely wasn't created in a lab 'was prompted by Dr. Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally.' In 2023, The Intercept reported that Fauci, a former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was one of a number of scientists in the pandemic's early days who were weighing whether the virus was engineered. The study, titled 'The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,' was part of an effort to rule that possibility out. Trump's page also highlights the fact that Biden gave Fauci a pardon before he left office, seeming to insinuate that this is a sign of guilt. In early 2020, Cuomo earned national recognition for his insistence on measures to stop the virus's spread in New York. He also made waves for hosting televised conferences about COVID-19, in which he would fire shots at Trump. Cuomo's administration was later rebuked by a House panel for changing its methodology for tracking virus deaths in nursing homes to make the number seem lower than it actually was. Trump's new site claims that Cuomo's team 'worked to cover up the tragic aftermath of their policy decisions in an apparent effort to shield themselves from accountability.' The site links to a congressional report issued by the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which, like Trump's page, concludes that the virus came from lab and criticizes the government's response to the global pandemic.
