Editor's note: Freddie Reidy is a freelance writer based in London. He studied history and history of art at the University of Kent, Canterbury, specializing in Russian history and international politics. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Breeding grounds for conspiracy theories are invariably created by a disparity between cause and effect – the belief that momentous events in history must be caused by equally momentous forces. The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a variety of conspiracy theories over its origins, and on February 9, these theories were rejected by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Peter Ben Embarek, a member of the WHO-China joint team investigating the origins of the coronavirus, said the team believed it was "extremely unlikely" that the COVID-19 outbreak originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

As the threat of a global pandemic grew, theories circulated that the WIV was home to an experimental biological weapons program. The theory was given traction by an increasingly vitriolic campaign from the White House as the pandemic began to spread to the U.S., ultimately derailing former U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

Based on a report from The Washington Post that alleged U.S. reports over safety concerns at the Wuhan lab, Fox News inferred prior knowledge of an imminent threat which was reported to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Fox News continued to cite unnamed sources claiming that the spread of the virus could represent the "costliest government cover-up of all time."

However, despite this alleged prior knowledge and fear of a cover-up, Trump stated at the end of January 2020 that "China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency."

It was only some months later as the virus took hold and began to impact U.S. life that a new lexicon was adopted. COVID-19 became "Wuhan flu" and the "China virus" in an attempt to attribute blame to China, while deflecting from the deficiencies of the U.S. response.

Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared only too keen to add fuel to the fire, telling reporters, "What we know is, we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China. We know that there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was."

This added to the widely reported Fox News story where the unnamed sources had claimed that "patient zero" had worked at the lab and the transmission of the virus was from bat to human.

It is true that experiments were conducted at the site on novel coronaviruses in bats. However, Liang Wannian with China's National Health Commission, also on the WHO-China joint team, cited that no traces of COVID-19 were found at the labs. Liang also said that infectious discoveries were made in other parts of the city before a discovery at Huanan market, further eroding the theory.

Embarek questioned the belief that transmission had occurred directly from bat to human.

The WHO team declared that they were open to investigating other potential points of origin, including through cold chain supply lines where frozen animals could have been shipped to Wuhan. Virologist Marion Koopmans on the WHO team announced that the WHO wished to "go and search for evidence for earlier circulation, wherever that is indicated."

While the WHO was able to rule out an artificial or genetically modified origin of the virus as well as declaring the WIV as the origin of the virus as "extremely unlikely," Embarek did also acknowledge that while the investigation had offered "new information," it did not significantly deviate from the established narrative.

That narrative does not include the sophistry of Trump and Pompeo. While already on trial for incitement, Trump and his administration must bear some responsibility for the hurt and suffering of racial abuse as a direct consequence of the branding of COVID-19 as the "China virus" and "Wuhan flu."

In addition to the distress caused to Chinese nationals and the wider Chinese diaspora, it also perpetuates a narrative of false information about the virus which costs lives.

The world is in desperate need of vaccination. Falsehoods about the origins of the virus only serve to fuel vaccine hesitancy. This is of particular concern to those most in need in the developing world, where the best chance at combating COVID-19 comes from a Chinese vaccine.

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