President Trump promoted a post on Twitter late Monday that falsely claimed a cure exists for COVID-19, the potentially deadly infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Twitter intervened shortly afterward and removed the tweet – which said “Covid has cure. America wake up” – for violating its policy against spreading coronavirus misinformation.
Originally posted to Twitter by Stella Immanuel, a pediatrician and minister, the tweet also contained video of her speaking outside the steps of the Supreme Court earlier Monday.
“Nobody needs to get sick,” she said in the video shared by Mr. Trump. “This virus has a cure.”
Scientists have not discovered a cure for COVID-19, however, which has infected several million people around the world since being discovered late last year in Wuhan, China.
Twitter said in a statement after the video was shared by Mr. Trump that tweets containing the clip would be considered in violation of its COVID-19 misinformation policy.
Indeed, Twitter confirmed Tuesday it had limited the functionality of the account belonging to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, after it shared the same the video deemed in violation of the platform’s rules.
Facebook also removed the video from its social network for sharing false information about COVID-19 cures and treatments, the company’s policy communications manager confirmed.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
More than 16 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 600,000 have died from the disease and over 9 million have recovered, according to the university.
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