(Screengrab via COVID.gov)
President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped the federal government’s main Covid-19 information hub and replaced it with a holding page blaming a Chinese laboratory for leaking the virus, shredding former President Joe Biden’s pandemic policies and attacking agencies and people it argues “obstructed” the truth.
As of Friday, visitors to Covid.gov are redirected to a White House-branded page that sources content almost entirely from the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The vaccine and testing information once housed on the site are now gone and, in place of health guidance, is a sweeping political reckoning that seeks to redefine the record on the pandemic narrative.
At the core of the new page is the argument that the coronavirus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and that U.S. officials, particularly Biden’s then-Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci (who served both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump’s first term), deliberately buried this theory to promote a “preferred narrative.”
Fauci is accused of helping orchestrate the influential Proximal Origin
The page also targets a familiar list of pandemic-era figures and institutions. EcoHealth Alliance is named as a central villain, accused of funneling taxpayer money into “dangerous gain-of-function research” in Wuhan. It highlights an ongoing DOJ investigation into EcoHealth and paints the NIH as complicit through alleged deleted records and weak oversight. Dr. David Morens, a Fauci advisor, is specifically accused of obstructing investigations and misleading Congress.
The messaging doesn’t stop at origins but attacks specific pandemic policies. Social distancing is labeled “arbitrary,” citing Fauci’s own admission that the six-foot rule “sort of just appeared.” Mask mandates are dismissed as unproven, and lockdowns are blamed for devastating impacts on mental health, the economy, and youth.
In a further swing at the Biden White House, the site accuses the administration of colluding with social media platforms to “suppress dissenting views” on Covid treatments and policies — an allegation echoing broader conservative claims of censorship.
A Mediaite review of archived versions of the page show that the original Covid.gov domain was live until at least April 10, but now serves solely as a redirect to the updated page.