Edit: Many users want to discuss what happened. We do not want this clogging up r/COVID19 and detracting from the science, but in order to give you all a place to discuss, we have created a discussion post on r/COVID19science so you can discuss to your heart's content! We will also have a more in-depth explanation post on /r/Coronavirus after the conclusion of today's AMA

STATEMENT FROM THE /r/Coronavirus MOD TEAM

Greetings users,

Well, it is with great pleasure that I announce that /r/COVID19 will return to normal.

The situation at r/coronavirus has been resolved and I will update this post with more info, but I'm super excited to be able to announce that we are BACK TO NORMAL EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!

To the new users: Thank you for your support, and you are welcome to stay and interact with the community we have already built, but please be mindful of how strict we are here. (feel free to lurk and get a sense of how this sub works)

To the OG users: On behalf of myself, and the entire mod team, I want to especially thank you for your support and patience with this whole thing!

I know this has been a disruption to the way we do things around here, and like you, it hurt me to deviate the sub from the community we all worked so hard to build. However, let us move past this little disruption and keep the sub chugging along!

With everyone's help, we can return r/COVID19 to its former glory!

Edit: part 1 and part 2 of the saga

EDIT2: To those asking, what ended up happening is the top mod decided to step down, which left /u/burrshotfirst1804 as the top mod. Once he was top, he added us all back, removed all the people who were added in our absence, and we have begun working to return the sub(s) to normal. Reddit admins did nothing to help us throughout the entire thing As mentioned if you have questions about this use modmail. Do NOT be asking questions about this situation in the weekly discussion thread, that is for science questions ONLY