<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The White House has launched a new website championing the theory that the coronavirus that causes </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/covid-19" rel="" target="" title="Covid-19 was a human-made pathogen"><span>Covid-19 was a human-made pathogen</span></a><span> that leaked from an infectious disease laboratory in Wuhan, China.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The page revives a long debate about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic that has seen investigations by federal agencies, global health organisations and congressional committees. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In January, the CIA issued a report concluding that a lab leak was likely, but with "low confidence" in that judgement, paralleling similar conclusions from the Energy and State departments.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/tuberculosis-surge-deadly-disease-overtakes-covid19-as-leading-global-infectious-killer/168e1782-787b-4622-bac8-596f401ade45" rel="" target="" title="Deadly disease overtakes COVID-19 as leading global infectious killer"><strong><span>Deadly disease overtakes COVID-19 as leading global infectious killer</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The CIA had previously said it did not have enough information to make a determination about where the virus originated. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The World Health Organisation has said it remains open to all hypotheses, including that the virus spread from animals to people in a Wuhan market.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Yet the Trump administration's new website takes the lab leak theory even further than most of those reports, stating that the virus "possesses a biological characteristic that is "not found in nature" and "if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have "already surfaced. But it hasn't."</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/white-house-wuhan-lab-leak-conspiracy-theory-covid-19-pathogen-china-us-news/e082a012-d471-4f6c-9d3a-ee00bdde19aa" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The federal website Covid.gov, which previously linked to information about vaccines, testing and treatment, now redirects to the White House's lab leak website.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-war-us-set-to-drop-peace-efforts-if-no-progress-in-days/428068b6-3c8b-48b6-8dd6-c719cfe409be" rel="" target="" title="Trump close to giving up on Ukraine-Russia peace efforts"><strong><span>Trump close to giving up on Ukraine-Russia peace efforts</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While US intelligence agencies have remained open to the possibility the virus was naturally transmitted during lab research, they nearly all previously agreed it was not genetically engineered. Many scientists believe, based on analyses of the virus and early cases, that the virus occurred naturally in animals and spread to humans in an outbreak at the Wuhan market. They've also said that the origin of the virus may never be proved.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary appeared to defend the website change during a Fox News interview Friday afternoon.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think people want some closure. The entire nightmare of Covid for three-plus years was likely entirely avoidable, had we not \[been\] messing with Mother Nature in a way that they should not have," Makary said. He added that people also want answers on prolonged school closures and vaccine requirements.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In several ways, the new White House page echoes a final report issued last year by the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, linked on the site. Republican members of the committee concluded last fall that the virus originated in a lab; Democrats issued a separate report that did not draw a definitive conclusion about the virus' origins but also pressed for more transparency.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/robert-f-kennedy-1968-assassination-records-released-on-trumps-order/86987ee8-5bb0-438e-be61-5e02363889be"><strong><span>Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination records released on Trump's order</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The new White House site also details perceived failures of the Covid-19 response, including "lockdowns," mask mandates, infectious disease research funding and HHS "obstruction" of those congressional probes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some of those officials are named. A section of the page is dedicated to President Joe Biden's pre-emptive pardon of retired National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Multiple Trump administration officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have railed against the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Biden administration's response in particular. The website could tee up further action from the health agency, as Kennedy has criticised broad coronavirus vaccine requirements and controversial infectious disease studies know as gain-of-function research.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Many congressional Republicans have also called for the administration to reinstitute a ban on this type of research, which can involve making a virus more transmissible or changing other traits to study its spread. A moratorium on gain-of-function studies was lifted during the first Trump administration.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Biden officials last year issued policy guidance that would have put more stringent oversight on gain-of-function research, but not broadly ban those studies. The guidance is set to go into effect this May.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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