The Staggering Scope of the Global Coronavirus Misinformation Epidemic
Scientists identified more than 2,000 false claims about Covid-19 in circulation
At the end of March, shortly after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, the United Nations warned of another looming global threat. Humanity’s common enemy, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, is the “growing surge of misinformation.” Rumors and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus have become so widespread that they’ve occasionally surfaced on the global stage. President Donald Trump, for example, infamously shared the dangerous idea that injecting oneself with disinfectants could cure Covid-19.
In a new paper published today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, an international team of researchers attempt to quantify how rampant misinformation has become during the pandemic. Poring through the platforms where misinformation surfaces or is reported — like Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers, and fact-checking websites — they identified 2,311 reports of misinformation that circulated between December 31, 2019, and April 5, 2020. Most of the information came from India, the United States, China, Spain, Indonesia, and Brazil—countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
