The Trump administration claimed that Dr. Fauci was the driving force behind “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” a publication that was frequently used by public health officials and the media to refute the lab leak theory, promoting the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally. The statement, which was attributed to the administration of President Donald Trump, was posted on the official White House website on Friday. At the heart of the renewed claims is the assertion that scientific and circumstantial evidence increasingly supports a lab-based origin of the virus, opposed to natural transmission from animals to humans.
In its statement, the US government listed a number of justifications for its position, one of which was that SARS-CoV-2 has biological traits that are uncommon in nature.
“The virus has a biological feature that isn’t present in nature.”
It further contended that “data indicates that a single human introduction is the cause of all COVID-19 cases.” In contrast, there were several spillover episodes during earlier pandemics.
Further implicating China, the US noted that “Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels.”
According to the report, some WIV researchers experienced COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, before the virus was identified at a local seafood market.
“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced,” the publication argued, suggesting that the absence of such evidence supports the lab leak theory.
These renewed claims surface amid ongoing tensions between the United States and China, intensified by a prolonged trade war. Both nations have imposed steep tariffs of 145 per cent by China and 245 per cent by the US on imported goods.
As of this report, the Chinese government has not issued an official response to the latest US allegations.
According to data from Worldometer, the global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more than 704 million confirmed cases and over seven million deaths since the first recorded outbreak in China.
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