US President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus at the White House on Monday in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

Fox News on Thursday quoted "multiple sources" and claimed that the COVID-19 is "likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory." A Fox News reporter also asked US President Donald Trump about the issue during the White House coronavirus news briefing, and Trump didn't deny it. This has promoted the spread of this accusation in the international media.

Everyone knows that Fox News is a media outlet that firmly defends Trump. It did not even dare to say the source of information. We have reason to suspect that Fox News fabricated the news out of thin air. This is their special operation to assist Trump's reelection.

Scientists worldwide have opposed the opinion that the COVID-19 was leaked from the laboratory. On February 18, before China and the US had diplomatic frictions on the origin of the virus, 27 prominent public health scientists released a statement to "strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin."

Fox News' report is to cater to the political needs of Trump and US ruling elites. The media is turning itself into a part of their political attack.

There are only more than six months before the 2020 US presidential election. The US is at the peak of the epidemic and it is uncertain whether it can be controlled. After a slight decline in infections, the number of new confirmed cases and deaths in the US soared by 40,678 and 2,538 over the past 24 hours, both reaching a new high.

The epidemic will impose a continual and dangerous political pressure on the Trump administration. To win the election, Trump and his Republican Party urgently need to pass the buck to others and divert public attention and anger. They will mobilize all their resources and pass the buck to China. Attacking the WHO is a new way to divert people's suspicion on China.

US ruling elites probably believe that whether they can make voters believe the US' highest infections and deaths are all because of China, and whether they can incite extreme nationalism among the Americans against China and make voters hate China, instead of US' rulers, are the keys to their election.

Fox News, US Republican lawmakers, the government-controlled intelligence agencies and the high-ranking officials who appear in public are all playing different roles. They are jointly painting a false picture that China is lying about the main information of the epidemic and hiding key facts from the world.

They are trying to convince Americans that China's so-called concealment has led to the US government's contempt for the epidemic, and has reinforced people's impression that the death toll in the US is too high. They want voters to believe that the US government has done a good job, and the US' death toll is acceptable and is much less than the worst case.

Are American people and international society so gullible? Let us see what will actually happen in the end. Our judgment is that politics will confuse some people and interests may help lies spread, and thus there will be people who chime in with Washington's claims. 

But common sense and real science will be more powerful. People in and outside the US will agree that the US must be responsible for its terrible COVID-19 management.

Washington will only fall into a bigger crisis if it wants to use a lie to weather the current one. They will pay a greater price for it.