Washington DC - The White House on Friday unveiled a revamped website that promoted the contentious theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, framing it as the pandemic's "true origins."
The White House's new webpage on Covid-19 promotes the contested theory that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab. © Screenshot/whitehouse.gov
The , previously focused on promoting vaccine and testing information, now includes a full-length image of President Donald Trump and criticizes the pandemic policies implemented under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The site also targets Anthony Fauci, Biden's former chief medical advisor, for advancing what it calls the "preferred narrative that Covid-19 originated naturally."
It presents five bullet points aimed at bolstering the lab leak theory, noting that Wuhan, the site of the first known coronavirus case, is also home to China's "foremost SARS research lab" and has a history of conducting research at "inadequate biosafety levels."
"By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced. But it hasn't," the website says.
The official White House X account took a trolling approach to pushing the new page, posting: "Definitely don't visit Covid.gov" along with a giggling emoji.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been blamed for producing the Covid-19 virus in 2019. © HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
The lab-leak theory, once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, has recently gained mainstream traction in the US, mainly through its politicization.
Even as the scientific debate remains unresolved, agencies such as and the Department of Energy have come out in support of the theory, albeit with varying levels of confidence.
Earlier this year, on the virus's origin, saying that it was "more likely" leaked from a Chinese lab than transmission from animals.
The assessment drew criticism from China, which said it was "extremely unlikely" Covid-19 came from a laboratory. Beijing has also to "stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing."
US hostility to China has skyrocketed, with successive administrations framing Beijing as an existential threat and escalating economic attacks, which culminated in Trump's tariff war.
The new site, which apparently seeks to redefine the political narrative about Covid-19, also criticized the mask and social distancing mandates introduced at the start of the pandemic in 2020. There is also a map of Wuhan that is animated to throb.
Under a section titled "Covid-19 misinformation," it rehashes far-right grievances of the past five years, including accusations that health officials demonized "alternative treatments" and colluded with social media companies to censor dissenting views about the pandemic.
More than one million people died of Covid-19 and related illnesses in the US, and millions more fell victim to the disease around the world.
