"Fox News Hosts, Far-Right Embrace Russian Bioweapon Conspiracy Theory
About Ukraine

Tucker Carlson devoted segments on his show to the baseless claim.

Donald Trump Jr. said the unfounded theories were proven to be a “fact.""

"Russia’s baseless claims about secret American biological warfare labs
in Ukraine are taking root in the U.S. too, uniting COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, QAnon adherents and some supporters of ex-President Donald Trump.

Despite rebuttals from independent scientists, Ukrainian leaders and
officials at the White House and Pentagon, the online popularity of the
claims suggests some Americans are willing to trust Kremlin propaganda
over the U.S. media and government.

Like any effective conspiracy theory, the Russian claim relies on some
truths: Ukraine does maintain a network of biological labs dedicated to research into pathogens, and those labs have received funding and
research support from the U.S.

But the labs are owned and operated by Ukraine, and the work is not
secret. It’s part of an initiative called the Biological Threat
Reduction Program that aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly
outbreaks, whether natural or manmade. The U.S. efforts date back to
work in the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for
weapons of mass destruction.

“The labs are not secret,” said Filippa Lentzos, a senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London, in an email
to the Associated Press. “They are not being used in relation to
bioweapons. This is all disinformation.”

That hasn’t stopped the claim from being embraced by some on the
far-right, by Fox News hosts, and by groups that push debunked claims
that COVID-19 is a bioweapon created by the U.S."
[snip]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russia-ukraine-bioweapon-conspiracy-theory_n_622c9bcee4b0fe0944d672bc

TB

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