There’s no doubt that there are millions of Americans who, almost nine months into the outbreak in this country, have an extremely poor understanding of COVID-19. It’s not hard to find people who claim that masks don’t work, or those who claim that the disease is less harmful than the flu, or even that the entire epidemic which has resulted in the death of 210,000 Americans is a hoax. It’s not hard to find them, because they all seem to be gathered in one place—at Trump rallies.
The reason for that isn’t hard to determine, because a new study from Cornell University concludes that in addition to a pandemic, the world is also suffering from an “infodemic.” That is, an epidemic of misinformation concerning COVID-19 circulating in the media over the course of 2020. And after looking at 38 million articles, they penned down the biggest source of this misinformation. No surprise. It’s Donald Trump.
Almost 40% of all incorrect information concerning everything from the World Health Organization warnings, to recommendations about wearing masks, was associated with statements from Trump. A small percentage of those citations involved media organizations correcting Trump statements, but the great majority were just media outlets—including broadcast networks and major newspapers—simply passing along Trump’s statements without bothering to point out that he was either lying, confused, or simply wrong.
The study notes that this misinformation about COVID-19 is “a serious threat to global public health” as people have been “misled by unsubstantiated claims about the nature and treatment of the disease” making them less likely to follow genuine scientific evidence and the advice of experts.
In the case of Trump, that means he has repeatedly pushed a dangerous and ineffective treatment, told people that a vaccine was “coming soon” since February, and made at least half a dozen statements saying that the virus would disappear “like magic.” All of that comes against a background of Trump deliberately and admittedly underplaying the threat represented by COVID-19.
Why should some people believe that COVID-19 is less serious than flu? Because Trump said that. Why should some people believe there are questions about the effectiveness of masks? Because Trump said that. Why should some people believe that the whole pandemic is a hoax? Because Trump also said that.
And Trump has not stopped providing lies and misinformation. During the thing-called-a-debate on Tuesday night, Trump claimed that “young children aren’t much affected” by COVID-19, a statement that’s been proven wrong not just by the over 600,000 children who had become infected as of September, but by multiple studies showing that children can transmit COVID-19 at least as well as adults and by rising cases of COVID-19 as Trump has pushed for schools to reopen.
The Trump-fed infodemic has generated its own body count. Not only has he encouraged people to ignore their own health, and that of family and friends, Trump has used threats and executive orders to force people into danger. That includes not just threatening to withhold assistance from states that didn’t push people back into schools and the workplace, it means actions like forcing meat and poultry workers to remain on the job even as hundreds of their coworkers were dying.
COVID-19 isn’t the only topic of the Trump Infodemic. It’s hard to find a topic on which Trump has not fed the nation a steady diet of material best suited for growing mushrooms. However, his insistence on lying, distorting, and ignoring COVID-19 has turned America into the biggest disaster zone on the planet.
Which makes it perfectly appropriate that Trump plans to spend the weekend in COVID-19 red zones including areas where new cases are surging. The absolute best place to gather people who think the diseases is less deadly than flu, that masks don’t work, and that the whole pandemic is a hoax.
What researchers warn against as a worst-case scenario, Trump appears to have used as a checklist.
If people are misled by unsubstantiated claims about the nature and treatment of the disease, they are less likely to observe official health advice and may thus contribute to the spread of the pandemic and pose a danger to themselves and others. Health protection strategies such as hygiene, sanitation, social distancing, mask wearing, lockdowns, and other measures will be less effective if distrust of public health authorities becomes sufficiently widespread to substantially affect public behavior. Specifically, misinformation about treatments for COVID disease can prompt people to attempt cures that might harm them, while fears and distrust about a possible vaccine could undermine the uptake of any vaccination campaign aiming to immunize the public at a later date.