Advertising
Supported by
The White House threw its weight over the theory of lab leaks, a concept that divided intelligence agencies.
By Benjamin Mueller
Trump’s management has replaced the government’s main portal for downloading data on Covid with an online page arguing that the coronavirus fled a lab, throwing its weight behind a theory of the origins of the pandemic that it has so far failed to support through direct evidence and that has divided intelligence agencies.
Covid. gov and Covidtest. gov, federal websites that provided data on Covvid and allow others to order the tests, now redirect to the lab leak page. With a symbol of President Trump flanking the words “lab leaks,” the new page is illustrated through a satellite symbol of Wuhan, China, the city where Covid began to spread and says it will describe “the genuine origins of Covid-19. “
The online page indicates that the city is the house of the Wuhan Virology Institute, a Coronavirus laboratory that had been worried about the studies projects that some dangerous scientists. It also refers to the considerations that the laboratory had carried out its paintings next to the security conditions of the point. The officials of the Central Intelligence Agency cited those considerations when the company recently moved its position to announce the speculation of the laboratory escape.
But the page does not deal with other main points about the early spread of the virus, such as where patients lived and worked and the genetic rates of an illegal wild animal market in Wuhan, where many cases have been detected. Many scientists who indicate that the virus has spread animals in other people in the market.
Since Trump returned to the functions, the White House managers began to describe the theory of laboratory leaks as a “confirmation truth. ” The C. I. A. He moved his evaluation with “low trust”; The agency’s resolution was not based on new information, but a deeper examination of evidence on safety situations in Wuhan laboratories.
The White House position masks uncertainty in the ranks of government intelligence agencies on the origins of pandemic. Intelligence managers and scientists pointed out that, since 2020, China has preserved the data that the problem may have informed.
We are having to recover the content of the article.
Allow JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thanks for your patience while we review access. If you are in reading mode, leave and attach to your Times account, or subscribe to all the time.
Thanks for your patience while we determine access.
Already a subscriber? Sign in.
Do you want all the time? Subscribe.
Advertising