They thought COVID-19 was a hoax, until they fell ill
... Eight months into a global pandemic that has infected more than 18 million people and killed more than 700,000 people worldwide, there are still those who are deeply skeptical about the dangers the virus poses. Others simply don’t believe it exists at all. One recent Pew Research Center poll found that, between late April and early June, the proportion of Americans who said the coronavirus pandemic had been exaggerated had increased from 3 in 10 to nearly 4 in 10. An earlier poll conducted by Survey 160 and Gradient Metrics indicated that Fox News watchers were more likely to believe that the threat of the virus had been overblown. And in recent weeks, there have been reports of Americans on their
deathbeds confessing they thought the virus was a hoax.
It all underscores the enormous information battle that’s running concurrently with the war againstCOVID-19. Though the news is filled with stories of death, lockdown and quarantines, President Donald Trump continues to paint a rosy outlook about the nation’s handling of the virus and to downplay its severity. This week, Facebook and Twitter removed videos posted by the Trump campaign’s social media accounts that the two companies said contained misinformation about the coronavirus. The offending video included a clip from Fox News on which the president erroneously claimed that children were “almost immune” to the virus. Coronavirus, like the debate about vaccines, has become political.
That polarization is exacerbated by another issue: where Americans get their information. An analysis conducted from October 2019 to June by the Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of adults in the U.S. “often” or “sometimes” get their news from social media. That reliance on social media has been a concern for years.
With COVID-19, public health experts trying to keep Americans informed say social media simply cannot be one’s sole source of information....
In June, long after the virus' hold on most of the U.S. had been widely reported, Tony Green, 43, held a small family gathering at his home in Dallas. He had been getting frustrated by state and federal government guidance about social distancing. “It’s family. You know we haven't seen each other in a few months, and to think that you can’t embrace each other, hug my mum? Give me a break. Of course I’m going to hug her,” Green said.
Green, a self-identified gay conservative, quickly regretted the get-together. Just days later, 14 members of his family had fallen ill with the coronavirus. His partner’s grandmother died. Green himself was hospitalized, his central nervous system attacked by the virus, his bed in the ICU just one floor below his father-in-law, Rafael Ceja. Ceja remains on life support, almost two months after the gathering....
When I coined the word I thought it was rather obvious, and I've since seen others independently use it. I did not know that it's a meme.
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