A video falsely touting a COVID-19 cure, among other bullshit, has been scrubbed from various social media platforms. Unsurprisingly, the President of the United States is among those who had amplified the video's exposure, ultimately sharing "multiple versions" of it with his Twitter followers on Monday night.
The video was published by the far-right outlet Breitbart, perCNN, and centers on a group of lab coat-donning people who refer to themselves as "America's Frontline Doctors." A "Dr. Simone Gold," who's been featured among Fox News guests in the past and is known for sharing anti-science views on virus containment efforts, is credited on an associated site as the head of the group.
Recklessly presented claims in the video include references to hydroxychloroquine as a "cure" for the virus, despite the FDA previously determining it's not an effective treatment, as well as dangerous anti-mask messaging. Notably, the video's content doesn't even align with the Trump administration's own health experts.
Social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube quickly worked to counter the video's spread late Monday. In a statement, a rep for Twitter—which had made the related clips retweeted by Trump inaccessible as of Tuesday morning—said their team was "taking action" as part of a company policy on COVID-19 misinformation. Reps from Facebook and YouTube shared similar statements.
Later Tuesday, Trump Jr.—who also shared the video in question—had some of his account features "temporarily limited" for violating site rules regarding the spread of "misleading and potentially harmful information" in connection with the virus:
Current CDC figures show the number of confirmed virus deaths in the U.S. nearing 150,000 as of July 27. Still, Trump and those like him seem fine with peddling offensively dumb garbage like this that only stands to worsen an already exhausting health crisis.
