Investigation

Revealed: US-funded website spreading COVID misinformation in Armenia

Articles on the website call COVID-19 a "fake pandemic" and oppose vaccines. Health experts say it’s “incredibly dangerous”.

By Tatev Hovhannisyan

Revealed: US-funded website spreading COVID misinformation in Armenia — People in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, during the COVID-19 pandemic | Photolure News Agency. All rights reserved

Published: May 28, 2020, 12:03 pm

US taxpayer money has funded a controversial health news website in Armenia that is spreading “incredibly dangerous” COVID-19 misinformation, openDemocracy can reveal.

Public health experts in the US and Armenia denounced this content – which includes claims that vaccines currently being developed are actually “biological weapons”.

The website, Medmedia.am, was launched in 2019 – amid a mushrooming of new ultra-conservative groups following Armenia’s 2018 ‘velvet revolution’ – by an NGO led by a locally well-known doctor with anti-LGBT views and far-right connections.

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