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The website Lab Leaks mentions that the researchers of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) showed COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019.
AP image used for representation
US President Donald Trump’s White House on Friday launched a COVID-19 website that explores the origin of the pandemic, blaming it on China lab leaks. It also criticises former US President Joe Biden, US health official Anthony Fauci and the World Health Organisation.
“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 naturally,” reads the website.
Hitting out at China, the website Lab Leaks mentions that the researchers of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) showed COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.
It also says that the “virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature”.
Not only this, but the website criticises the steps like social distancing, mask mandates and lockdowns.
Earlier in January, when Trump assumed office, a CIA spokesperson had said that the CIA has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to have emerged from a lab than from nature.
The website terms WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as “an abject failure” for caving to “pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and placing China’s political interests ahead of its international duties.”
On making masks compulsory, the website notes, “There was no conclusive evidence that masks effectively protected Americans from COVID-19. Public health officials flip-flopped on the efficacy of masks without providing Americans scientific data — causing a massive uptick in public distrust.”
China’s Reaction To US’ Claims
Reacting to the claims made by the website, China said that it supports and has taken part in research to find COVID-19’s origin. It also accused them of politicising the issue, adding that there was no credibility to claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic.
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Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
