White House website blames China for COVID-19 origins, lambasts Biden, WHO

WASHINGTON: Launching a COVID-19 website, the US President Donald Trump's White House has blamed the origins of the coronavirus on a lab leak in China while criticising ex-president Joe Biden and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for handling of the pandemic.

The website was also critical of steps like social distancing, mask mandates and lockdowns.

Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the US — by far the WHO's largest financial backer — from the agency when he took office in January.

Fauci, Biden and WHO had no immediate comment.

Soon after taking office, Trump also said that Fauci, who has faced threats since leading the country's COVID-19 response, should hire his own security and end US security for him.

A CIA spokesperson said in January that the CIA has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to have emerged from a lab than from nature.

The CIA had said it had "low confidence" in its assessment and that both scenarios — lab origin and natural origin — remain plausible.

China's government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19's origin, and has accused Washington of politicising the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.

Beijing has said there was no credibility in claiming that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic.