The White Home has redirected its official COVID-19 info portal, COVID.gov, to a brand new touchdown web page titled “Lab Leak: The True Origins of COVID-19.” Late Friday night time, the administration dropped a put up on X saying “DEFINITELY DON’T VISIT COVID.GOV,” adopted by a guffawing emoji.
The web page might not function conclusive proof of the pandemic origins that claimed greater than seven million lives globally and was liable for among the worst financial turmoil our world has ever seen, however it’s a transparent endorsement of the idea that the pandemic started with a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China.
5 major arguments of the Lab Leak idea
The touchdown web page cites the ultimate report from the Republican-led Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and presents 5 major arguments supporting the lab leak speculation.
It claims that the virus reveals options not present in nature, originated from a single human introduction, and that researchers at Wuhan’s high SARS lab fell sick with COVID-like signs within the fall of 2019, lengthy earlier than the virus appeared on the moist market.
The report additionally affirms that China’s foremost SARS analysis lab (with a historical past of gain-of-function analysis) relies in Wuhan and alleges that it has “insufficient biosafety ranges.” Lastly, it argues that if there had been proof of a pure origin, it could have appeared by now.
The administration additionally assaults public authorities officers, together with Dr. Anthony Fauci, and New York mayor Andrew Cuomo for selling analysis designed to dismiss the lab leak idea, and for making false statements to the Choose Subcommittee.
COVID-19 and the crypto markets
The COVID-19 pandemic is widely known as a “black swan” occasion, an unpredictable and unprecedented disaster that despatched shockwaves via international monetary markets in March 2020. The speedy unfold of the virus and the announcement of worldwide lockdowns triggered excessive volatility and panic promoting throughout asset lessons, together with crypto.
Bitcoin and different digital belongings, which had not beforehand skilled a serious systematic disaster, noticed sharp declines as buyers rushed to liquidate positions and search security in money. Between March 12 and April 1, 2020, the crypto market underwent a interval of intense panic and sell-offs, mirroring broader market uncertainty. Bitcoin, which had traded close to $7,000 earlier than the disaster, noticed its worth plunge alongside equities as buyers scrambled for liquidity.
Nonetheless, due to the magic cash printers of worldwide governments worldwide pumping trillions into their economies, the crypto sector shortly rebounded. By July 2020, the market had largely recovered, and Bitcoin started a historic rally. By early 2021, Bitcoin surpassed $40,000, with the broader crypto market following swimsuit.
The U.S. authorities’s direct stimulus checks grew to become a defining function of its financial response, mailing a $1,200 stimulus verify to all Americans to tide them over in the course of the lockdown interval. It’s price noting that, ought to that cash have been invested in Bitcoin in April 2020 as a substitute of being spent, it could now be price over $17,000, a achieve of almost 1,400%.
The dramatic rebound of the crypto market illustrates the volatility and alternative that outlined the pandemic period. Because the White Home doubles down on the lab leak idea, the financial and monetary legacies of COVID-19, together with the extraordinary rise of Bitcoin, proceed to form authorities insurance policies and investor habits.
