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

Russias 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. Its 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 Unions program for weapons of mass destruction.

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

That hasnt 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.

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