I thought so too when I first looked at this thread, but I see it now too. The interesting thing is that it doesn't happen in all views, and maybe not even all the time.

Right now for me, if I click on the link that OP gave, which shows just that single message and nothing else, the link looks normal, no redirect shenanigans.

But if you click in the upper right where it says "Thread: Coronavirus pandemic" and click to show the post in the context of its containing thread, then when the post eventually loads (you will have to wait for the FT software to do whatever it is that takes so long probably loading all of the thread's messages just to show you a single page) and then jump to the post (number 43958) and then hover over the link again.

For a less controversial post which is not in OMNI/PR, here's one on the JWST Space Telescope:

single post: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33953366-post202.html

in thread context: James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - 12/22/21 launch

using developer tools to inspect:



Both of these examples are in OMNI; I do NOT see the redirect markup outside of OMNI (but have only looked at a tiny number of posts so don't know if this rule holds true universally)