Here & Now

Misinformation and the Pandemic

Frederica Freyberg:

Surfing the internet and chatting on social media are common pastimes, especially now. But at the height of both the coronavirus pandemic and polarized politics, what information gets spread is often false. Tonight we hear from the author of an important article from our partners at WisContext and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. The headline? Misinformation and the paranoid style in Wisconsin’s pandemic politics. WisContext Reporter Will Cushman is here with details. That’s quite a headline, Will but it says it all because your investigation shows that false information about COVID-19 circulates with a kind of warp speed on the internet, especially on social media like Facebook. So could that be what helps explain Wisconsin’s surge right now?

Will Cushman:

That’s a really good question, and I think there’s a number of factors that are behind Wisconsin’s surge right now. And certainly one of the biggest ones is the fact that there is still a sizable portion of the population that isn’t adhering to public health recommendations to socially distance or to wear masks. And what we’re seeing in some of these Facebook groups that we looked at, really large Facebook groups that have large followings in Wisconsin. One of them has over 120,000 members. There’s a lot of really pretty politically motivated misinformation down playing the virus and the disease. Any misinformation that’s down playing the virus is potentially going to help convince some people that they might not have to socially distance or wear masks or do the other things that slow the spread of the disease.

Frederica Freyberg:

Your article does say that and this is a quote, “President Trump is the most prominent purveyor of inaccurate information about the disease” but just this week in the midst of Wisconsin’s record-setting spikes in cases and deaths, Senator Ron Johnson also said that we were flattening the curve. So what role does polarized politics play in all of this?

Will Cushman:

It’s difficult to understate the role of really toxic politics and the spread of misinformation about COVID. It’s no secret that the pandemic figures prominently in a really pretty divisive election year and campaign season. And I think we’re finding that that mixture of kind of the anxiety and the fear surrounding the pandemic, along with the anxiety of an uncertain political environment is really having pretty negative effects in terms of a lot of people’s willingness to listen to and spread false and misleading information about the virus.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, you just spoke about how there are Facebook groups with a lot of members that originated in Wisconsin. Is there reason to believe that this misinformation about COVID is more rampant in Wisconsin than elsewhere? I’m really trying to just wrap my head around what’s happening in Wisconsin, you know?

Will Cushman:

Sure. Yeah. And that’s a really good question. And I guess I would say I’m not aware of any evidence that would indicate that the misinformation environment in Wisconsin is any worse than it is anywhere else. It’s a problem really everywhere. In my reporting, I even looked at misinformation spreading on social media in China. So this is a global problem. It’s happening in India and Europe as well. All over the world. So I really don’t think that Wisconsin is unique in this misinformation environment surrounding the pandemic. But especially as cases surge right now, the misinformation is quite problematic here locally.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s get a sense of what we’re talking about. What are some of the most kind of outlandish pieces of fake information that health officials or doctors you’ve interviewed have heard about?

Will Cushman:

A lot of the more outlandish misinformation surrounds the use of face masks. There are conspiracy theories linking face masks to Satanism. That’s clearly not accurate. There are a whole lot of equally pretty egregious conspiracy theories about the pandemic. But then also conspiracy theories or misinformation that really leverages confusion or even discrepancies that people might find in the copious amounts of data that is pouring in every day, data about the disease, caseloads, deaths and hospitalizations. Sometimes that data can be really confusing and difficult to straighten out, especially as it’s being pumped out at really unprecedented levels and so quickly. That can be a breeding ground for misinformation as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

So really with just about a half a minute left, how difficult has it proved for public health officials to counter this misinformation?

Will Cushman:

That’s a really good question as well and one that a number of reporters were posing just yesterday during a media briefing with state health officials and state health officials acknowledged that it has been difficult. Certainly some changes to advice, especially surrounding the use of face masks, maybe has made it difficult to convince people of face mask efficacy in particular. But we’re also seeing local health officials in Wisconsin quitting their jobs because of the misinformation that’s spreading and political pressure to not follow science and their guidelines.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wow. Well, Will Cushman, thank you very much for your reporting.

Will Cushman:

Thank you so much, Frederica.