COVID lab leak theory appears vindicated after Energy Department report: 'They censored us, trashed us'

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Judge Jeanine: From day one, you were not allowed to have an opinion on COVID

‘The Five’ co-hosts discuss a classified intelligence report from the Energy Department that reportedly says COVID-19 most likely came from a Chinese lab. 

The Energy Department has concluded COVID-19 most likely came from a Chinese lab, according to a classified intelligence report cited by the Wall Street Journal. 

The lab leak theory, or the theory that the virus came from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, was widely dismissed as a conspiracy and "fringe" theory. It was labeled as "misinformation" by Democrats, major news outlets, and social media companies in the early stages of the pandemic who tried to suppress the theory from being circulated. 

Fox News' Greg Gutfeld argued this is a great example of how "racism can suppress conversation."

Members of the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (REUTERS/Thomas Peter)

"So when you brought up that the origins of COVID had to be in China, then you were obviously Asian-phobic. Right? And it was racist to say Chinese or China virus and they would link it to Asian people getting brutalized- including homeless people in Oakland, California," Gutfeld said. 

"What the race card does is it can crush actual dialogue and theories based on the fact that, ‘oh, it comes from somewhere else.’ You have to talk about it and we have to investigate. And, you know, if you think the 9/11 lawsuits were 20 years, this is going to go on for a century. This is going to cast a long step, a long shadow forward with coming litigation because you're talking billions of people."

Co-host Judge Jeanine argued the government politicized COVID to silence conversations and shut down free speech. 

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"How many people in America lost their businesses? [Or] weren't allowed to go to their business? You know, and then there was the unequal treatment. If you go to your salon, we're going to throw you in jail. But the amazing part of this is from day one, since the beginning, you were not allowed to have an opinion," she said.

"What they did was they they censored us. They trashed us. They silenced us. And if you look at it from a bigger umbrella, this was the first time in America that the left had the chance to really silence us." 

Pirro added that for the first time, the government could come out and say what is misinformation and what is disinformation, or "we will shut you down." 

Smartphone with fake news inscription in chains. Conception of increasing problem of fake news. (iStock)

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"We will close down your business, you'll be taken off Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. So it was a first time, I believe, and I think that this is a huge issue, that the government was able to literally silence the American public and say and have everyone else say, yeah, they must be silenced because it's disinformation,'" she explained. 

Fox News' Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report