President-elect Joe Biden has rightly put the public health crisis at the top of his priority list. This shift away from chaos and toward coherence should help to stem the uncontrolled flow of falsehoods that thrive amid uncertainty. Yet more needs to be done by a government whose leader would rather set the record straight than spend his day warping it on Twitter: The anti-vaccination movement learned its way around the Web long before covid-19 struck, and the disinformation war it has started even before these lifesaving medicines are widely available must be countered with a preemptive defense.
How? Trying to prevent propaganda discouraging vaccines altogether is futile. While social media sites should continue to take a tough line against false claims surrounding covid-19, promoting authoritative sources in their place, that strategy depends on the quality of those sources — and the administration has the highest authority out there.