COVID-19 variants continue to emerge, no ties to biolabs in Ukraine | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·4 min read
9

The claim: There have been no new COVID-19 variants since Russia attacked US biolabs in Ukraine

A June 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) ties Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a purported elimination of COVID-19 variants.

“Did you notice that the Covid variants stopped when Russia started going after the Biolabs?” the post reads. “Omicron was declared a variant of concern on 11/26/2021. Russia began neutralizing US Biolabs in Ukraine on 02/24/2022. No variants since.”

The post was liked more than 1,000 times in seven days.

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Our rating: False

New COVID-19 variants are routinely discovered around the world. There is no credible evidence to show the U.S. operated biolabs in Ukraine.

Many new variants, no evidence of of Russia destroying US biolabs

Publicly available data shows variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have continually been discovered in the months since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

A database maintained by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, an international effort to make virus data quickly accessible, shows there have been new SARS-CoV-2 variants in at least 11 countries since the start of June and in 71 countries since the start of May.

The World Health Organization also tracks variants and lists XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 as variants of interest on its website as of June 5. Both were discovered far after the timeframe mentioned in the social media post.

The post claims omicron was the last variant of concern, but there have been numerous variants of the omicron lineage in recent months. A variant is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a viral genome with at least one mutation from a previous version.

WHO's variant tracker notes that all known variants currently circulating are part of the omicron lineage, while a University of Nebraska report notes the original variant in the omicron lineage “is gone now.”

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The social media post also claims Russia has been destroying U.S. biolabs in Ukraine, a claim that was previously debunked by USA TODAY and continues to be refuted by international authorities.

In June 2022, the Defense Department released a fact sheet outlining its involvement in a program to reduce “legacy threats from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons” in states that formerly made up the Soviet Union. It notes the U.S. provided support to 46 “peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites” that worked to promote human and animal health.

The document also says the facilities are owned and operated by Ukraine, with the U.S. acting as a partner that provides equipment and other support. It says both nations have agreed to not develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

“These facilities operate just like other state or local public health and research laboratories around the world,” the fact sheet says.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, COVID-19 variants aren't from US biolabs in Ukraine | Fact check