The Trump White House is leaning heavily into the lab-leak theory on the origins of COVID-19 with a web page that outlines evidence of a spillover from a virology center in Wuhan, China, instead of nature. The web page, which features splashy graphics and maps and went viral on social media, also faults Dr. Anthony Fauci and Democrats who downplayed the idea that a lab leak was responsible. “A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely origin of COVID-19,” the White House page says. “Current government mechanisms for...

The White House on Friday updated its website to declare that COVID-19 resulted from a lab leak in China, confirming a theory many had about the origins of the coronavirus. The website includes a guide detailing how the pandemic truly began, countering the earlier narrative that it emerged from an outdoor market and from people eating bats. The White House claims, “’The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2’ publication — which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak theory — was prompted by Dr....

LONDON (AP) — Five years after COVID-19 triggered national lockdowns, economic uncertainty and killed millions, the World Health Organization’s member countries agreed on a draft “pandemic treaty” that sets guidelines for how the international community might confront the next global health crisis. After the world’s largely disastrous response to the coronavirus, countries tasked the WHO with overseeing a pandemic treaty in 2021; negotiations concluded early Wednesday on an agreement expected to be adopted next month at the U.N. health agency’s annual meeting in Geneva.

A group of Democratic-led states sued the Education Department Thursday in an effort to regain access to hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief aid that the department abruptly cut off late last month. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, 16 Democratic attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) argued the Education Department violated federal law by blocking access to the funds, which the department, under the Biden administration, previously said the states could access through March 2026. The funding was approved by...

Idaho schools for now will be able to continue actions to prevent spreading diseases, after Gov. Brad Little on Saturday vetoed a bill that would prohibit mandates on medical interventions. Little on Saturday vetoed Senate Bill 1023, which would expand on the state’s previous law prohibiting businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines. The bill would ban business and private schools from requiring any medical intervention, including all types of injections, instead of just coronavirus vaccinations. The bill would also bar any treatment “or action taken to diagnose, prevent or cure a...

Dr. Peter Marks, who has overseen the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine program since 2016, submitted a letter of resignation on Friday effective April 5. Marks joined the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in 2012 as its deputy director before being promoted to director in 2016. Marks cited his disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marks was a key figure, serving as a key official in the first Trump administration in the development and distribution...

The Trump administration on Friday pushed out Peter Marks [photo], the nation’s top vaccine regulator and an architect of the U.S. program to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines, a move that comes as HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his overhaul of the nation’s health and science agencies. Marks, who joined the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 and had overseen its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since 2016, was offered the choice to resign or be fired. He opted to resign, with an effective departure date of April...

Marks, who joined the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 and had overseen its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since 2016, was offered the choice to resign or be fired, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive situation. Marks is leaving his post with a “heavy heart,” he wrote in his resignation letter Friday, which was obtained by The Washington Post. The longtime regulator wrote that he was particularly worried about the measles outbreak in Texas, which “reminds us of what...