The former Biden administration, along with several prominent health experts, quickly dismissed allegations suggesting that Covid-19 originated from a lab leak. This denial persists, even against differing opinions within the health sector, including those from Jay Bhattacharya, who now serves as the president of President Trump’s National Health Bureau.
Bhattacharya expressed a strong belief that the research agenda led to the pandemic due to lab leaks in Wuhan, China.
A page on the NIH website, last reviewed on March 16, 2022, remains unchanged by the current administration. They continue to label the lab leak theory as “misleading and false.”
The NIH’s web page states:
Unfortunately, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains unidentified, which has led to false and misleading claims regarding the research supported by NIAID related to bat coronaviruses. These claims specifically reference studies conducted at the Wuhan Institute in China, funded through sub-awards from the EcoHealth Alliance. The bat coronavirus studied through this funding was genetically different from SARS-CoV-2, thus unable to cause the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bhattacharya has often voiced concerns during the Covid era, suggesting there was a cover-up surrounding the virus’s origins.
In a May interview, he indicated that the U.S. should make greater efforts to clarify the virus’s origins, although he noted that China has not been cooperative in the investigation.
“There’s significant external evidence indicating at least a cover-up regarding hazardous experiments in China,” he stated.
He characterized the research agenda as representing “a very dangerous kind of utopia,” emphasizing his confidence that leaks from labs in Wuhan contributed to the pandemic. He also mentioned it was part of a global issue.
Bhattacharya criticized prior efforts by Dr. Anthony Fauci and other leaders at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, asserting they worked to suppress this theory while backing scientists who downplayed its validity.
Blaze News reached out to the NIH to clarify whether they plan to revise their webpage to address the lab leak theory, but there was no immediate response.
