By the summer of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic had entered a new phase. Vaccines were widely available for those who wanted them, and coronavirus cases had declined as the initial wave was beaten back. Even so, mass vaccination did end the pandemic; the vaccines offered considerable protection against severe disease and death—particularly for the elderly and at-risk population—but they did not prevent infection.
The frustration from the public health establishment was palpable, and top policymakers within the Biden administration blamed vaccine hesitant individuals for exacerbating the pandemic. In July, President Joe Biden said, "the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated." Among government health advisors, a consensus quickly formed that the main culprit was medical misinformation on social media.
Biden asserted that Facebook had blood on its hands and implied that regulation would follow if moderation did not improve; as a consequence, the social media company effectively put the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in charge of determining what kind of speech would be permitted on the platform. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a report on "Combatting Health Misinformation" that encouraged social media platforms to "prioritize early detection of misinformation 'super spreaders'" and limit their reach wherever possible. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, an activist non-profit organization, coined the term "disinformation dozen" to refer to the 12 social media accounts most responsible for the spread of anti-vax narratives, and urged social media companies to take action.
