A federal web site sharing public well being details about COVID-19 vaccines, remedy and testing has been changed with one devoted to theories about “the true origins of Covid-19” and scrutiny of previous well being officers’ dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID.gov’s dramatic reboot Friday has the location now that includes a photograph of President Donald Trump with the phrases “LAB LEAK.” Under it lists sweeping allegations of presidency obstruction and cover-ups on the virus, which it states “most definitely” got here from a laboratory in China.
“By practically all measures of science, if there was proof of a pure origin it could have already surfaced. But it surely hasn’t,” states the web site, which was beforehand listed as overseen by the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
A White Home spokesperson in an electronic mail to HuffPost on Friday declined to say the place the general public ought to now go for well being data and suggestions on COVID-19.
Spokesman Kaelan Dorr, in an obvious response to a query asking in regards to the web site’s function or objective, vowed that the Trump administration “WILL be essentially the most clear administration in U.S. historical past.”
“Nothing will cease us from innovating and discovering artistic methods to uphold our finish of the cut price,” Dorr mentioned.
A spokesperson with the Division of Well being and Human Companies advised HuffPost that it defers remark to the White Home.
The CIA in late January mentioned that it believes the virus most likely originated from a lab, an evaluation that it mentioned was made with “low confidence.” This conclusion adopted President Joe Biden’s administration requesting a recent evaluate throughout its ultimate weeks.
Along with questioning the virus’ origins, the location criticizes previous suggestions and orders on social distancing, masks mandates and lockdowns enacted in the course of the pandemic, calling them pointless and damaging to the U.S. economic system and “psychological and bodily well being of Individuals.”
Studies have shown that these measures drastically lowered the spread of the disease that has killed more than 1.2 million Individuals since January 2020.
The web site particularly targets former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments and as each Trump and Biden’s chief medical adviser.
The web site, at its worst, says Fauci helped “push the popular narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally” and scrutinizes a presidential pardon he was later granted by then-President Joe Biden.
Trump, whereas in workplace, routinely butted heads with Fauci and different federal well being officers who pushed again in opposition to his urged medical remedies and public responses to the well being emergency. Trump promoted unproven remedies for the virus as “cures” and even as soon as urged injecting bleach as a remedy throughout a press briefing.
A 2020 study by Cornell College discovered Trump to be “the biggest driver” of COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
Trump’s present well being secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also promoted COVID-19 conspiracy theories earlier than being tapped to supervise the nation’s well being division.
In 2023, Kennedy reportedly was heard suggesting that the coronavirus might have been genetically engineered by the Chinese language to focus on sure races.
“They’re gathering Russian DNA. They’re gathering Chinese language DNA so we are able to goal folks by race,” he mentioned of the Chinese language, in accordance with the New York Post.
