Medical disinformation and the unviable nature of COVID-19 conspiracy theories

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a marked rise in medical disinformation across social media. A variety of claims have garnered considerable traction, including the assertion that COVID is a hoax or deliberately manufactured, that 5G frequency radiation causes coronavirus, and that the pandemic is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 16; no. 3; p. e0245900
Main Author Grimes, David Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 12.03.2021
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Computer and Information Sciences
COVID-19 - pathology
COVID-19 - virology
Deception
Electromagnetic Fields
Engineering and Technology
Epidemics
Fraud - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Medical misconceptions
Medicine and Health Sciences
SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification
Social aspects
Social Sciences
Truth Disclosure
Vaccination
Wireless Technology
United Kingdom
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Summary:The coronavirus pandemic has seen a marked rise in medical disinformation across social media. A variety of claims have garnered considerable traction, including the assertion that COVID is a hoax or deliberately manufactured, that 5G frequency radiation causes coronavirus, and that the pandemic is a ruse by big pharmaceutical companies to profiteer off a vaccine. An estimated 30% of some populations subscribe some form of COVID medico-scientific conspiracy narratives, with detrimental impacts for themselves and others. Consequently, exposing the lack of veracity of these claims is of considerable importance. Previous work has demonstrated that historical medical and scientific conspiracies are highly unlikely to be sustainable. In this article, an expanded model for a hypothetical en masse COVID conspiracy is derived. Analysis suggests that even under ideal circumstances for conspirators, commonly encountered conspiratorial claims are highly unlikely to endure, and would quickly be exposed. This work also explores the spectrum of medico-scientific acceptance, motivations behind propagation of falsehoods, and the urgent need for the medical and scientific community to anticipate and counter the emergence of falsehoods.
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Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0245900