In the coronavirus era, rumors, misinformation, conspiracies spread faster than contagion
No, Washington state is not going to be quarantined by the federal government. No, the National Guard is not imposing martial law.
Those were just the latest, and some of the most outrageous false rumors, to be spreading across social media and word of mouth during this ongoing coronavirus crisis.
False information is inciting worry, panic and leading people down paths that could, in the long run, make them ill-equipped to fight the virus.
“The volume of information — good and bad — is like nothing we’ve ever seen,” said Jevin West, director of the Center for an Informed Public and an associate professor at the University of Washington’s Information School. “The misinformation on this topic is massive.”
Rumors thrive on uncertainty, and there’s plenty of that surrounding the coronavirus.
The rumors are frequently attributed to someone with inside knowledge or alleged years of experience and yet are not directly associated with the government or health experts who, it’s assumed, can’t be trusted.
The quarantine rumor was from someone whose mother “just got off the phone with one of her good friends whose sister is ...”
KOMO anchor Mary Nam went straight to Gov. Jay Inslee’s office last week to check it out. She confirmed it to be bogus.
“This false and incorrect note is making the rounds online and scaring the crap out of people,” Nam tweeted.
Inslee and Washington Emergency Management tweeted a thank you to Nam.
“No truth to it,” the department said.
On Friday, the Washington National Guard also tweeted a rumor buster.
“Let’s put aside the rumors about martial law or military rule. IT’S JUST NOT TRUE,” the Guard tweeted.
Rumors go high tech
It’s been nearly 19 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On that day, rumors abounded. Hijacked planes were headed to all major cities. The White House had been hit. None of it was true.
Now, technology allows rumors to travel faster than ever and even reach into people’s pockets.
“We’re seeing information and misinformation traveling successfully in text message chains and email chains,” West said. “More so than in other crises.”
The situation isn’t unique to the coronavirus pandemic, he said.
“We see this in all crisis events,” West said.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Life Care Center in Kirkland, rumors of the disease reaching Pierce County became rampant. The News Tribune continues to receive tips daily on alleged coronavirus patients in every hospital in the region and several assisted living facilities.
Some rumors say the disease is running unchecked in a facility. In another rumor, staff abandoned a facility and left residents to care for themselves.
The rumors were false.
Many of the erroneous tips came from hospitals employees themselves. The information was passed from a co-worker or friend, the tipsters say.
Many of the coronavirus rumors give bogus medical advice.
A popular rumor from a supposed member of the “Stanford hospital board” suggests COVID-19 will heavily damage the body before a person is symptomatic. It also offers bizarre suggestions for lung tests and prevention.
It’s all bogus. The so-called medical expert doesn’t exist.
“That caught a lot of people who think they’re good at not being fooled by misinformation,” West said.
In actuality, the only way to know for sure if you’re infected with the coronavirus is through a laboratory-conducted test, medical experts repeatedly say.
Naturally, there’s lots of misinformation on how to prevent and cure COVID-19. Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker was sued by the state of Missouri and other governments for selling cures for the disease on his website.
There are no known cures, miracle or otherwise, for COVID-19.
Rumors can affect personal decision making and alter lives.
On March 13, a Seattle man cut short his California vacation and returned to Washington.
“We heard a rumor that all airports will be shut down tomorrow for 2 weeks,” he posted on Facebook.
The rumor came from a colleague, he said. He didn’t want to take any chances.
It should be noted that airports have not shut down.
A week later, he still felt like he had made the right decision, even though the rumor was false.
“I thought it was a prudent thing, and still think it was,” he told The News Tribune on Thursday. “I was glad to come back.”
Mute or repeat?
Some studies have suggested that it’s harmful to repeat false rumors. People might remember the rumor but forget it’s false.
Others say the rumors must be addressed.
When he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama launched a website called Fight the Smears, which listed every false rumor about him and provided a rebuttal.
“There is this concern that we have about raising the awareness of rumors too much, because people might see them for the first time,” West said. “That said, we still have to refute them. It provides an important service for the information ecosystem.”
The challenge, West said, is rumors are coming like an unstoppable tsunami.
“The scale is so big,” he said.
Although some rumors spread fear and panic, others are meant to assuage.
On March 5, celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky went on TV to complain about media coverage of the coronavirus. He said the press should instead be talking about the seasonal flu, which kills more people.
Pinsky is correct about the flu. But he ignored the potential for death and illness that the coronavirus brings.
The death rate from the common seasonal flu is 0.1 percent. The death rate from COVID-19 is currently at 6 percent in Italy. The World Health Organization puts the mortality rate at 3.4 percent. Even the best-case scenarios put COVID-19 at 10 times more deadly than the flu.
In addition, the current medical system has a capacity to deal with the uptick of seasonal flu cases. It will struggle to handle the addition of cases from a new, emerging virus.
Pinsky’s comments, amplified by overly optimistic comments by President Donald Trump about the impact of the coronavirus, were spread around the internet, giving the impression that the virus was of little concern.
Trump has subsequently recognized the imminent national health emergency the unchecked virus represents. Pinsky has not.
Conspiracy theories
Deadly viruses aren’t new. Still, that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from spreading false information that the coronavirus was made as a bio-weapon. On March 13, Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. suggested North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was behind it.
Others said Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates was the culprit.
The rumors ignore history, which is filled with polio, measles, HIV, the Spanish flu, SARS, yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, MERS, scarlet fever, Ebola, Zika and other diseases that have collectively wiped out millions of human lives.
Nature is quite efficient at creating deadly pathogens. It doesn’t need Kim Jong-un’s help.
Local conspiracy theories abound as well.
“A nurse from (a local hospital) told me there are dozens of cases now,” read one rumor on Facebook from a Tacoma woman. “They are worried about running out of medical supplies. It’s much worse than anyone is letting on. The medical community is just trying to keep it under wraps so there will not be panic in the streets.”
That rumor, like many, was partly false (there weren’t dozens of cases) and partly true (they were worried about running out of supplies.)
Many conspiracy theories begin with a source, like the quarantine rumor Nam tracked down.
The same format was used recently on the martial law rumor.
“I personally have gotten that from friends of friends,” West said.
There is a good chance, West said, that the martial law rumor is being spread by a disinformation campaign beyond U.S. borders.
That, in itself, sounds like a conspiracy theory. But, West said, foreign misinformation campaigns are up and running during the coronavirus crisis.
“Those outside the borders who are trying to sow confusion and make it worse for us to collectively make decisions are trying all sorts of new strategies that aren’t just on Facebook and Twitter,” West said.
Not all rumors are bad
“There are positive roles that some rumors can play during crisis events because there’s knowledge vacuums, and some people have a little more information than others,” West said.
Government sources, fearing a misstep, are sometimes slow in releasing information.
The problem is that people without knowledge on a particular subject rush in with answers, he said.
“The real experts, like the (Centers for Disease Control) or the World Health Organization, are more cautious about claiming certainty,” West said. “The public is not comfortable with uncertainty. We want answers.”
So, why start a false rumor?
“I think it comes down to good intentions,” West said. “They worry about their friends and families, and they are privy to some information that would help people. I don’t think there’s nefarious intent to them.”
Stopping the rumors
When you are presented with a rumor, there are steps you can take to verify it, West said.
First, use a handful of reliable sources: CDC, WHO, National Institutes of Health and local government officials.
“Check to see if they’re saying the same things,” West said.
You can also use fact-checking websites, like Tacoma-based Snopes.com.
If you want to research the rumor yourself, ask questions, West said.
“Who is telling me this? How do they know it? Is there anything they have to gain from it? Is it too good to be true?” he said.
If the information is on social media, trace it back to the source. Did the account just appear? Did it go from 5 followers to 5,000 followers overnight?
The information era is as much of a misinformation era in the time of the coronavirus.
“We are all susceptible,” West said. “More than ever, we must listen to trusted sources.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
