Doctors, policy analysts and members of the media reacted badly to President Donald Trump's administration replacing the pivotal Covid.gov government website with what critics described as an ill-conceived movie poster.
“The United States has, it seems, lost the plot,” wrote Loughborough University professor Duncan Robertson.
University of Washington biology professor Carl T. Bergstrom posted, “One person's ‘in a shameful effort to coerce and control the American people’s health decisions’ is another person's attempt to deal with a president who suggests treating COVID by injected bleach or sticking a UV light up someone's a--."
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Christina Pagel, a professor at University College London’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, lamented: “US govt are disinfo kings. Covid.gov website a week ago was pretty normal info about staying up to date with covid vaccines and now [it’s] some bizarre amalgam of Trump and lab leak theories.”
At the height of the Covid pandemic, Covid.gov provided U.S. residents means to access life-saving information about vaccines and treatment options. It also educated visitors on how to recognize the damaging, sometimes fatal, secondary illnesses and infections that COVID can herald, and it offered a resource for receiving free virus tests.
Today, however, anybody clicking “Covid.gov” will be redirected to a website with the U.S. president front and center on the landing page with the text: "LAB LEAK."
The site includes intense criticism of Dr Anthony Fauci, who helmed the nation’s Covid response policy under not only Joe Biden, but also Donald Trump in his first term. Many Trump voters and MAGA devotees, however, resented Fauci’s recommendations to wear masks in public and his advocacy for the evolving line of vaccines developed to combat the ever-evolving virus that killed more than 1.1 million Americans.
The site also pushes the hotly contested “Wuhan virus” theory describing the virus as created in a Chinese lab, over the more widely accepted theory (and more common occurrence) of the virus emerging from species crossover exposure.
“The White House has turned covid.gov into a conspiracy theory page,” wrote Gizmodo tech reporter Matt Novak.
Washington Post White House reporter Dan Diamond pointed out the website’s claim is disputed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and “appears to rest entirely on a House GOP report that no Democrats signed.”
Read the Guardian article here.