Covid.gov, a key federal COVID-19 resource, no longer appears accessible.Mother Jones illustration; Getty
As of Friday, Covid.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 resource launched in 2022, is no longer providing information and resources about Covid—and Covidtests.gov, the website used to order free Covid tests from the government, isn’t, either.
Both now redirect to a White House page promoting the “lab leak theory,” which contends that the virus originated from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. The website, touting the “true origins of Covid-19,” depicts President Donald Trump strolling out from between the words “Lab” and “Leak.”
The change was shared widely by Trump supporters, including by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec on X: Posobiec, a frequent amplifier of Russian intelligence–backed website Southfront, white nationalist ideas and anti-vaccination misinformation, commented, “This is amazing.”
The new site centers blame on the HHS, NIH, the World Health Organization, and, of course, China.
The page does more than seek to refute evidence against the lab leak theory. It criticizes much of the federal government’s Covid response, and that of the state of New York, beginning with a 2020 research paper titled “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” that was published by the National Institutes of Health under Dr. Anthony Fauci, a target of the MAGA base.
As you continue scrolling, the page runs through various conservative talking points about the ineffectiveness of pandemic measures like masking, social distancing, and lockdowns. It also claims that “the federal government demonized alternative treatments and disfavored narratives, such as the lab leak theory, in a shameful effort to coerce and control the American people’s health decisions.” Beyond just policy critique, the new site centers blame on the HHS, NIH, the World Health Organization, and, of course, China.
Support for the lab leak theory has continued to grow over the last few years, as reported by ProPublica and as expounded in government analyses and by intelligence agencies, though many scientists believe research points to the virus originating in a market selling live animals. Regardless, Covid remains prevalent in the US and across the world—and the erasure of guidance by the federal government hangs Americans out to dry.
