Screenshot: Internet Archive / Wayback MachineThe White House has changed covid.gov into a website for promoting the so-called lab leak theory for the origins of covid-19. Donald Trump, who was president during the first year of the covid pandemic in 2020, has long sought to claim the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, in an effort to suggest it was a weapon intentionally unleashed onto the world. But the best science we have at the moment still suggests covid had natural origins.
The covid.gov website was previously a government-run destination to find information about covid-19 testing, vaccines, and treatment options. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has snapshots saved from what the site looked like as recently as April 10:
Screenshot: Internet Archive / Wayback Machine
But the Trump regime has turned what used to be a dry, informative, fact-based website into a hype page for Trump’s personal grievances against perceived political enemies. At some point in the past week, covid-19, started to redirect to the White House. And incredibly, it looks like this:
Screenshot: White House
The covid.gov URL redirects to the White House website and now features a list of “facts” that aren’t widely agreed upon by scientists who have studied the origins of covid-19.
Trump’s allies have long claimed that covid-19 was designed in a lab and was either intentionally or accidentally leaked. The CIA even changed its assessment of covid’s origins shortly after he took power again, suddenly claiming it may have been from a lab leak, though admitting “low confidence” in that assessment. But the most recent studies on the topic, looking at genomic data, still suggest natural origins from an animal market in Wuhan, China. And a study earlier this year found that most virologists and other scientists with relevant expertise still don’t think the lab leak theory is the best explanation for how covid-19 came into the world.
The new website presents highly contested claims as facts and prominently features several people like Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden, who were supposedly instrumental in covering up some big scandal. Disturbingly, the website also names several other people whom the White House suggests conspired to cover up the real origins of covid, including Dr. David Morens, a senior advisor to Fauci. It’s disturbing because President Trump has promised a campaign of retribution against his enemies and has already started to target individuals like cybersecurity expert Chris Krebs for telling the truth about the 2020 election. Trump has also targeted law firms that he’s extorting to get free services, and institutions like Harvard University to resegregate American life.
But at least Trump’s new website looks dumb as shit. As one user on Bluesky pointed out, the graphic design of the site makes it look like Trump is the one who was doing the leaking. Another user compared the design to the Pixar lamp logo.
— Jon Danziger (@danziger.bsky.social) April 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM
The cartoonish nature of Trump’s redesign would be shocking in any other timeline, but we happen to be living in the timeline where Trump was elected to be president. Twice, in fact. And that means we wake up to new absurdities like this every day.
The response to the covid-19 pandemic by the first Trump administration was arguably one of the worst among wealthy countries. The U.S. had 341 deaths per 100,000 residents, the second worst in the world after Peru, according to Johns Hopkins University data that runs through early 2023. So it makes sense that Trump, who rather famously will never admit when he’s done something wrong, would try to deflect blame.
It wasn’t Trump’s bungled response to testing early in the pandemic that allowed the virus to spread like wildfire. It wasn’t Trump’s inability to provide health care workers with enough PPE. It wasn’t his bald-faced lies told directly to the American people as a way to calm the markets. It was some shadowy forces in China who were just trying to hurt Americans.
The idea that covid-19 was designed in a lab is certainly something that could’ve happened. It’s just that there’s no strong evidence for that theory. And while there’s nothing wrong with exploring all possible reasons for something like a pandemic, people like Trump and his goons at the White House clearly have a motive for blaming anyone but themselves. This, after all, is a guy who suggested injecting bleach into the body to get rid of it. Trump needs there to be some other outside force that he can blame. Because compared to the rest of the world, Trump failed spectacularly to keep Americans safe.