Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, April 23: In a shift in the United States federal government’s public position on the origins of COVID-19 virus, the Trump administration has replaced the content of official pandemic information websites with materials supporting the lab leak theory.
The website, which previously provided resources for testing, treatment information, and other pandemic guidance, now features the administration’s claims that the virus originated from a laboratory incident in Wuhan, China. This change comes more than five years after the pandemic began and as thousands of COVID-related deaths continue to occur monthly worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.
The revamped website directly challenges earlier scientific assessments, particularly “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” paper, which the administration claims was “prompted by Dr Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally” and was “used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak theory”.
The administration lists five assertions to support its position, including claims that the virus possesses “biological characteristics not found in nature”, that data suggests all cases stem from a single introduction to humans, unlike previous pandemics, and that Wuhan’s status as home to China’s leading SARS research facility with a history of conducting gain-of-function research supports the theory. They also cite reports that Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers experienced COVID-like symptoms in fall 2019 and argue that evidence of natural origin would have surfaced by now if it existed.
China has firmly rejected these assertions. In an April 22 press conference, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun characterised the website changes as “political manipulation under the pretext of COVID origins tracing” and called for the U.S. to “stop politicising and weaponizing origins tracing.” The spokesperson further stated that China has “actively supported and participated in global science-based origins tracing in the spirit of science, openness and transparency.”
This website overhaul represents the latest development in a years-long debate over COVID-19’s origins. The pandemic has claimed more than 7 million lives globally since its emergence in late 2019, with scientific consensus on its precise origins remaining elusive despite extensive research.
