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The White House threw its weight over the lab leak theory, a concept that has divided intelligence agencies.
By Benjamin Mueller
The Trump administration has replaced the government’s main portal for Covid data with an online page arguing that the coronavirus leaked from a lab, throwing its weight behind a theory of the pandemic’s origins that is so far unsupported through direct evidence and has divided intelligence agencies.
Covid. gov and covidTests. gov, federal internet sites that provided data on Covid and allow others to order tests, now redirect to the lab leak webpage. Bearing a symbol of President Trump flanked through the words “Lab Leak,” the new page is illustrated with a satellite symbol of Wuhan, China, the city where Covid began spreading, and says it describes “the true symbol of the true symbols of the true symbols of the true, the true symbol of the city’s origin, and says the true origin. “COVID-19. “
The online page notes that the city is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a coronavirus lab that had been preoccupied with study projects that some scientists were working on. He also alluded to considerations that the laboratory had carried out its paintings in unsafe conditions. Central intelligence agency officials cited those considerations when the company recently shifted its stance to favor the lab leak hypothesis.
But the page doesn’t cover other main points about the virus’s early spread, such as where patients lived and worked and genetic clues to an illegal wildlife market in Wuhan, where many cases have been detected. Many scientists say the data indicates that the virus has spread from animals to other people in the market.
Since Trump returned to office, White House managers have begun describing the lab leak theory as a “confirmatory truth. “The C. I. A. moved its evaluation with “low confidence”; The agency’s resolution was not based on new information, but a deeper examination of evidence about security situations at Wuhan labs.
The uncertainty of the White House posture mask in the ranks of government intelligence agencies about the origins of the pandemic. Intelligence officials and scientists have pointed out that, since 2020, China has withheld data that may have been gracious on the matter.
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