HTML tag produces 'Uncaught SyntaxError "<"' using create-react-app project

JavaScript
1

I created a React project in IntelliJ using create-react-app. I placed my index.html file in /public and run “npm start” on the folder where package.json is found.

While index.html pulls up, it appears that certain HTML tags aren’t recognized upon, I assume, Babel attempting to transpile the HTML code in /public/index.html (or something like that), getting the following:

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ‘<’ (at respond.js:1:1)

This was due to the following tag:

  <script src="%PUBLIC_URL%/js/vendor/respond.js"></script>

However, when I copied respond.ds up one level to the /js folder and retooled the tag, the error went away; here’s the tag that works:

<script src="%PUBLIC_URL%/js/respond.js"></script>

Does anyone have any idea why that is happening within my React project onto reading index.html?

Thanks