In mid-March 2020, as the United States continued to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the anti-science blog Natural News posted a “story” pushing the claim that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, “appears to have had advanced knowledge” of the disease.
The only source for the allegation is a job posting on the CDC website for what the agency calls a public health advisor specializing in quarantines. The blog, though, refers to the position as “quarantine program advisor.”
After republishing the job posting verbatim, the blog admits it cannot corroborate its “reporting”:
Although we have no direct proof, it would be entirely consistent for the CDC to be part of a globalist program to deliberately release a deadly pandemic virus in order to push for mandatory vaccines and funnel billions of dollars into the vaccine manufacturers (which has already begun).
Yet just a few paragraphs later, the blog claimed that “the proof is right on [the CDC’s] own website. The blog also claimed that the agency “had a hand in releasing measles at Disneyland in California in order to create mass media hysteria” favoring SB277, a state law passed in 2015 that bars parents from citing “personal beliefs” as a reason to oppose vaccinations if they want to enroll their children in public elementary school or secondary education.
The blog also accused the CDC of deliberately stalling the implementation of test kits for the disease, citing a Politico report on the overnight delay faced by an official from the Food and Drug Administration when he arrived at CDC headquarters in Atlanta to coordinate test efforts.
But while there have been several reports from legitimate outlets on the delays and mistakes the CDC has made in making testing kits that were free of defects, none of them have accused the agency of deliberately allowing the pandemic to fester.
The post is another example of why Natural News topped the list of worst websites for science compiled in 2016 by RealClearScience (RCS), a site that actually adheres to scientific principles. According to RCS:
Founder Mike Adams and his slew of contributors spew all sorts of conspiratorial, anti-science slime on a daily basis to their more than seven million monthly visitors. Examples include labeling the HPV vaccine Gardasil the “most dangerous vaccine in America”, claiming a “mass chemical suicide” is underway in the U.S. from contaminated drinking water, and comparing pro-GMO science writers to Nazis. Natural News has possibly done more to popularize conspiracy-oriented and pseudoscientific beliefs than any other news outlet this century.
We contacted the CDC for comment regarding Natural News’ latest set of accusations, but we did not receive a response.
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