On April 18, the White House replaced the “COVID-19.gov” landing page with a page claiming to reveal the “true origins” of COVID-19. The new website suggests that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and accuses the Biden Administration of covering up evidence of a lab leak. The “evidence” on the site is pulled directly from the 2024 House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic report, which did not include any new or direct evidence to support its conclusion that a lab leak caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Several subcommittee members refuted these claims, stating that the “investigation did not uncover the origins of COVID-19. Both pathways remain plausible, and we are more or less where we started.” Many popular anti-vaccine and conspiracy social media accounts promoted the site as proof that COVID-19 was deliberately leaked from a lab as a bioweapon. Some posts called for health officials to be arrested and COVID-19 vaccines to be withdrawn, while others called COVID-19 vaccines and the so-called lab leak cover-up crimes against humanity, claiming health officials have “blood on their hands.”
Recommendation
The White House’s promotion of misleading and unproven claims about COVID-19 may further weaken trust in public health entities. Messaging may explain that we do not know the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 as there is not enough concrete evidence to form a consensus. Talking points may continue to emphasize that COVID-19 vaccination remains the best defense against severe illness, hospitalization, long COVID, and death.
Fact-checking sources: The Conversation, The Guardian
