Trump-Branded 'Lab Leak' Page Replaces US Covid Information Sites (npr.org)
- Reference: 0177063825
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/030246/trump-branded-lab-leak-page-replaces-us-covid-information-sites
- Source link: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins
Yet [2]the Associated Press reports that "A federal website that used to feature information on vaccines, testing and treatment for COVID-19 has been transformed into a page supporting the theory that the pandemic originated with a lab leak." (This despite the fact that "about 325 Americans have died from COVID per week on average over the past four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.")
> The [3]covid.gov website shows a photo of President Donald Trump walking between the words "lab" and "leak" under a White House heading... The web page also accuses Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of pushing a "preferred narrative" that COVID-19 originated in nature. The [4]origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident. A [5]U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory.
"Many scientists think it's more likely the virus [6]originated naturally in a wild animal and then [7]spilled over into people in a wildlife market located in Wuhan," [8]reports NPR .
And even Jamie Metzl, a critic of the wildlife spillover theory, told NPR that while they appreciated "efforts to dig deeper... it would be a terrible shame if such efforts distracted from essential work to help prevent further infections and treat people suffering from COVID-19 and long COVID." (The federal website [9]covidtests.gov now also redirects instead to the new page...)
> Some scientists were critical of the new site, which they say appears political in intent. "Every one of the five pieces of evidence supporting the lab leak hypothesis ... is factually incorrect, embellished, or presented in a misleading way," [wrote Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada]. "But making evidence-based arguments in good faith about the pandemic's origin is not the purpose of this document. This is pure propaganda, intended to justify the systematic devastation of the federal government, particularly programs devoted to public health and biomedical research," Rasmussen added.
>
> Other scientists said the web site doesn't follow the existing body of scientific evidence on the issue. That evidence does not support "any of the many, often contradictory, lab leak scenarios that have been proposed," Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, in an email to NPR. He argued that the evidence is consistent with "the less flashy hypothesis that bringing live animals infected with pathogens with pandemic potential into the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world was how this pandemic started.... the next pathogen with pandemic potential will find us easy pickings if we don't appreciate how risky this sort of 'biosafety level zero' activity is."
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/white-house-covid-web-page-page-supporting-lab/story?id=120956514
[2] https://apnews.com/article/trump-covid-origin-lab-leak-fauci-c8767c1e2c5698c845059ab7f0534ff7
[3] http://covid.gov/
[4] https://apnews.com/article/china-covid-virus-origins-pandemic-lab-leak-bed5ab50dca8e318ab00f60b5911da0c
[5] https://apnews.com/article/covid19-united-states-intelligence-china-23dcbde0be5638556739b564ece97027
[6] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/28/1160162845/what-does-the-science-say-about-the-origin-of-the-sars-cov-2-pandemic
[7] https://www.npr.org/2024/09/19/g-s1-23605/covid-pandemic-origins-wet-market-wuhan-lab-leak-raccoon-dogs
[8] https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins
[9] https://www.covidtests.gov/
Re: (Score:2)
This is one of the cases where there just isn't a way to confirm one theory or the other. That's not the answer people want to hear, so they run to the mental safety of utter conviction that one theory or another is correct.
It's a quite pure manifestation of Dunnig-Kreuger. You end up with utter conviction, coupled with an utter lack of real knowledge.
RFK jr (Score:2)
Antibiotic resistant bacteria is soon to become a bigger problem anyhow, so good luck with that America! Has RFK single handedly cured autism yet?
Re: (Score:2)
RFK Jr can team up with Jordan Peterson to solve the autism epidemic using forced monogamy.
Re: RFK jr (Score:2)
By September of this year, for sure. Musk told me.
Re: (Score:2)
We're making measles great again! How about a doctor with measles treating children? [1]https://apnews.com/article/tex... [apnews.com]
[1] https://apnews.com/article/texas-measles-outbreak-rfk-jr-ben-edwards-2dd7c79d47c64ad2e6d4a4ac3c87ec1f
Re: (Score:2)
I'll bet you anything that now that this is out RFK Jr. won't even have the decency to walk back his praise of this doctor.
This man should be losing his ability to practice medicine for endangering so many people with such a blatant disregard for his entire medical education and yet he'll probably end up a brave right wing hero.
And The American Sheeple Continue To Graze (Score:1)
The grasslands of compliance and stupidity.
Values (Score:5, Interesting)
This is what happens when you have no values. You think it's OK to promote anti-reality beliefs and let millions suffer and even die unnecessarily if it helps you gain or hold power. Awesome.
The COVID lab leak theory somehow means to MAGAs that Trump did nothing wrong with his COVID response that resulted in a much higher death toll than comparable countries. And that COVID was a hoax, and vaccines cause autism. Promoting this instead of normal public health messaging is a simple move to shore up support.
The government exists to coordinate the population, and generally in a democracy it's supposed to do so for the common benefit, yet here we have a population that voted for ignorance even as it killed them, and that was harnessed by evil people with a cheap moronic conman as their frontman to guide the US towards a corporate feudalism structure. Everyone will be worse off, even those at the top of the power structure... but they all apparently get off on the idea that it's OK so long as someone they don't like is even worse off whether they deserve it or not.
Re: Values (Score:2)
> The government exists to coordinate the population, and generally in a democracy it's supposed to do so for the common benefit, yet
No a government doesn't exist to coordinate the population. It exists to provide services to citizens that enable them to seek out their own path and full potential, services that by their nature require a monopoly to exists. Such as adminstration of the legal system and property rights, maintaining a military, a currency and establishing uniform weights and measures.
A democratic government, in particular, explicitly acknowledges that it exists to serve its people rather than to control or "coordinate the p
Re: (Score:2)
I think you and Baron_Yam are on the same track. If I had to guess, what he meant by "coordinate the population" was his way of saying what you said. And yes, I agree with you both.
Re: (Score:2)
> A democratic government, in particular, explicitly acknowledges that it exists to serve its people rather than to control or "coordinate the population."
A government's raison d'être does not necessarily have anything to do with the method through which it is appointed.
Re: (Score:2)
"alternative to Trump is not worthy of trust at all, because they were caught red-handed engaging in smear campaigns, cover-ups, and other anti-democratic tactics"
So we need Trump, because he's... defending democracy? Being very respectful and not smearing anyone? He's an honest man who would never engage in a cover-up?
This is why I reserve the right to use the word "retarded".
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure China won't be pleased, but this could have global ramifications. Countries are going to be even less willing to share information on the next pandemic if they think that some moron like Trump will blame them for leaking it from a lab.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm more concerned about conspiracies being no better than secrecy when it comes to sharing information for global health protection.
Like China's wet markets, the US is going to become a major reservoir and potential breeding ground of deadly disease outbreaks.
You're going to be able to say 'filthy diseased Americans' and be factually correct rather than just being nasty.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a great analogy. The radiation present at Chernobyl is wildly improbable to explain via just a meteor, that's is a falsifiable theory, it could be proven and indeed it was. If there was a meteor it could be found and tested.
The thing with COVID is that the natural origin/wet market theory has yet to be falsified, indeed it cannot be falsified or it has not arrived this point so until there is a total smoking gun both theories *could be true*. The reason this whole argument exists is neither have been
Re: (Score:2)
> And yet believing Chernobyl was a natural event requires the same level of credulity to think that Sars-COV-2 was a zoonotic event
No, it does not.
Also, correlation != causation.
Also, none of the two events should be based on belief, but rather available data. When there is no overwhelming proof, you don't flip a coin and pick sides, you simply say "we are not sure yet" and leave it there.
Any questions?
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the Soviets kept denying that an accident had happened until it became impossible to hide it, and then kept telling people that it was really not a big deal, that radiation wasn't dangerous at all and that everything is being taken care of.
Kind of like a president of another former superpower denied that the epidemic was a problem, then kept telling people there are only a few cases, that it isn't spreading fast, that it isn't all that dangerous and that it is easily treated with over-the-counter
We have invented the memory hole (Score:2)
And we call it the Internet.
Nothing to see. move along. (Score:2)
Rewriting history to fit your narrative is not fascist at all.
[1]https://i.imgur.com/GXtUhMN.gi... [imgur.com]
[1] https://i.imgur.com/GXtUhMN.gif
Re: (Score:1)
So the UK intelligence agencies, German intelligence agencies, FBI, DOE, and the CIA are all under the thrall of ignorant fascists that rewrite history, eh? They all give more credence to the lab leak theory than the natural origin theory.
At some point, it’s smart to check your instruments and recalibrate. Wipe down the lens on your microscope. Everything you don’t agree with isn’t “fascist”.
I didnt think it was possible (Score:2)
They joked about this on 30 Rock but Trump actually put Dr Leo Spaceman in charge. [1]https://youtu.be/87TxqNE1sQo?f... [youtu.be]
[1] https://youtu.be/87TxqNE1sQo?feature=shared
"easy pickings" (Score:2)
the next pathogen with pandemic potential will find us easy pickings
Anyone else think this is a Darwinian Feature?
What's better than... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's better than medical information that helps people? Ideologically driven conspiracy of course!
Re: (Score:2)
We really are on the dumbest timeline.
Re: (Score:3)
In other news, the good and brave Vladimir Putin just granted an Easter ceasefire to those dirty Ukrainians. His kind benevolence even extends to those who start wars with his country!
Re: What's better than... (Score:3)
What are you talking about? Hunter Biden started that conflict by invading Russia. He's also personally responsible for global climate change. Trump himself told me.
Re: (Score:2)
Remains to be seen if it isn't a ruse to get some Ukrainian civilians in one place, so that a very peaceful Soviet SS-23 renamed to "Iskander" can turn them into a bloody pulp, as happened a week ago in Sumi, two weeks before that in Kharkiv and three weeks before... and three years ago in Kramatorsk and ...
Re: (Score:2)
What's better depends on who you ask, for those in power it's medical disinformation that hurts people.
Can't wait for SuperKendall's take, just as soon as he gets it from Bret Weinstein. Not that it matters because as SuperKendall told us, humans have natural immunity to COVID.
Re: (Score:1)
Which is why anyone even suggesting anything besides the wet market theory was ridiculed, we were told to clean all surfaces touched by someone with covid within 72 hours, told that masks did no good etc etc etc, right?
Re: What's better than... (Score:2)
Well, what type of mask, for who, and where?
Re: What's better than... (Score:2)
Are lab leaks conspiracy theories now? We really are in the dumbest time line.
Start with the Marburg virus outbreak of 1967 and report your findings.
Re: (Score:2)
Nice strawman. Get back to me when you have something even vaguely intelligent to say.