Op-Ed: As coronavirus cases multiply, so does government disinformation (via latimesopinion)
In Sarajevo, a woman asked me how Americans would survive a siege. Now, with coronavirus, I’ve gotten a glimpse.Illness and disease are a perfect laboratory for conspiracy theories, disinformation and propaganda. Disinformation is itself a pathogen that flourishes where there is fear, ignorance and powerlessness. In fact, the World Health Organization calls falsehoods generated by the COVID-19 outbreak an “infodemic.
If it could be charted, the graph of fake news would likely run parallel to that of the disease itself. In the United States, its rise and spread may be especially contagious: With the president constantly uttering falsehoods and misinformation along with a few actual facts, he gives aid and comfort to the peddlers of conspiracy and prevarication.
Disinformation about disease is as old as illness itself. During the Black Death in the 14th century, stories circulated that Jews deliberately caused the disease by poisoning the wells of Christians. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, rumors abounded that the flu had been created by the German military as a weapon of war. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, a Liberian newspaper published an article saying it was a U.S. biological weapon created to kill Africans.
Social science studies show that when people feel a lack of control over their lives, they are more susceptible to conspiracy theories and more likely to become vectors of disinformation. When it comes to disinformation about the virus, our general scientific illiteracy doesn’t help; neither does a lack of certainty among experts.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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