The White House on Friday published an official update to its website identifying a lab-related incident in China as the most likely origin of COVID-19, marking a significant shift in the federal government’s position on the beginnings of the global pandemic.
The newly released information disputes earlier assertions that the virus emerged naturally from animal-to-human transmission at a wet market in Wuhan, China.
The administration’s updated guidance attributes the outbreak to gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and outlines evidence supporting the lab leak theory.
“The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” — a paper widely cited by public health officials and media outlets in early 2020 to support the natural origin theory — was “prompted by Dr. Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally,” according to the new White House webpage.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! The White House just updated https://t.co/tY8rgr9yZs to a website outlining how COVID originated from a Chinese lab leak
And they EXPOSED Dr. Fauci’s efforts to cover it all up.
Trump was right again, of course. pic.twitter.com/3zqlqTdISI
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 18, 2025
The site outlines scientific and