Marwa Amini

04/28/24

Mr. Muratore

English 1120

Misinformation during the Covid-19 Pandemic

When the Covid-19 pandemic was in its early stages, essentially everyone complied with

the rules set in place. Wearing a mask, receiving covid vaccines, staying six feet apart, and

isolating inside one’s home became the norm. But as the disease raged on, the spread of

misinformation did as well, causing people to struggle in distinguishing truth from falsehood.

Misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic led to dangerous health practices, increases in

hate crimes, and faulty accountability. Because of these outcomes, there needs to be a change in

how social media content is monitored. One may argue that the spread of covid misinformation

was justified and limiting social media content about the disease is a clear violation of the First

Amendment. One could also argue that people responsible for the origin of the illness should be

held responsible for the damage caused. To avoid further incidents, the U.S government should

impose stricter regulations on internet activity regardless of the individual posting content.

As Covid-19 deaths rapidly increased, people began questioning the information they

were being told by healthcare professionals. Many found it hard to believe Covid was so deadly

based on daily news reports, so they turned to misinformation as an alternative solution. The

sharing of conspiracy theories and false statistics about the illness became increasingly prevalent.

According to Pew Research Center, 71% of Americans had a least heard of a conspiracy theory

online with 20% saying it was probably true (Schaeffer, 2020). Rather than take advice from

trained healthcare professionals, some politicians, specifically Republicans, chose to spread false
information about the disease. Because politicians are people of power and presumably

trustworthy, normal people find it appropriate to accept the information they post online without

much questioning. Social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram, and

Facebook enable people to spread various types of misinformation, often with little to no

consequences. Due to this, some people went as far as threatening health care professionals like

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to the President Trump, and his family. To

protect citizens like him, more internet censorship and accountability should be instilled.

But one could make the argument that these regulations infringe upon the right to

freedom of expression, specifically the First Amendment. The First Amendment lays out many

rights for Americans, but perhaps the most vital one during the pandemic was the right to

expression “Congress shall make no law…or abridging the freedom of speech…”(The First

Amendment, 1971). People should be able to express and share whatever they desire online

because it is a legal right bestowed upon them and this right shouldn’t be challenged nor

revoked. This is accurate to an extent, however there are limitations to this amendment as well as

the rest. Historic supreme court case like Schenck v. United States and Chaplinsky v. New

Hampshire concluded that certain types of speech are not protected under this amendment,

specifically when its threatening or endangering to a specific person or group of people

(Freedom of Speech, n.d.).

In another opposing position, internet users argue that these platforms have implemented

“fact checks” stating whether information posted by a certain user is factual or not based on

scientific evidence. When an online user posts a potentially harmful post about the virus, that

post will undergo a fact check by the social media platform to prevent it from being continuously

spread. However, only some extremely threatening posts or the accounts they are posted from are
fully removed while majority stay posted with warnings placed under them. One study conducted

by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley discovered that fact checks on social media have a

minimal effect on other users and their decisions to share that specific post (Wasike, 2023). Even

with these fact checks; people can simply ignore them and continue to accept and spread the

false information.

The spread of health misinformation by influential individuals further deepened the

health crisis. In January of 2020, former president Donald Trump held a White House briefing

where he suggested that bleach should be studied as a potential cure for the virus. As a result,

there was a 121% increase in accidental disinfectant poisonings in the United States (Kluger,

2020). Based on the timings of these poisonings, it’s safe to assume they occurred directly

because of the president’s recommendation. Statements like these are especially detrimental

when they come from powerful people, especially the leader of the United States because people

feel obliged to listen to his “advice,” especially since he was constantly surrounded and advised

by top health care professionals researching the disease every day. In a later comment on his

controversial statement, he said “It wouldn’t be through injections, almost a cleaning and

sterilization of an area.” Cleaning brands like Lysol later came out and released statements

saying “under no circumstance” should cleaning products be ingested or used for any part of the

body (Calefati, 2020). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also issued a

statement warning against using disinfectant products for any other purpose besides cleaning

surfaces.

Because the disease resulted in so much damage and deprivation, people responsible for

its outbreak should be held accountable but in an appropriate manner. At later stages of the

pandemic, researchers found that the disease most likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China.
When news outlets began covering this story, some people immediately resorted to blaming the

Chinese government and shortly after, all Chinese people for its spread which led to a staggering

increase in violence and discrimination against Asian Americans. The FBI reported that there

was a 77% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans from March 2020 to June 2021 (FBI

Hate Crime Statistics, 2020). Covid was referred to as “the Chinese virus” by some which only

caused more prejudice towards Asians.

On the opposing side, some people believe it’s fair to assign blame to Chinese people,

specifically the Chinese government, since the disease was leaked from a Chinese lab. Because

of this, the Chinese government should be held accountable for the insurmountable number of

deaths and complete shift in living globally. Some saw this revelation as another strong argument

against the Chinese government entirely, linking it to previous reports of China’s mistreatment of

its civilians in terms of basic human rights. While this type of accountability may seem

appropriate considering the circumstances, it’s not logical to blame an entire ethnic group for a

disease. There are multiple factors that go into how and why diseases are spread, it is a very

complex process overall. This behavior towards the Chinese only lead to more racism and

discrimination against them and possibly increasingly strained relationships with the Chinese

government.

In conclusion, there is strong evidence that the spread of misinformation during the Covid

pandemic resulted in several new problems regarding people’s ethnicity, overall health, and trust

in health care experts. Because of this, the American government should take preventative

measures to monitor social media activity, especially from people known to spread harmful

misinformation. Whilst some argue that these measures are unconstitutional or that there are

already enough internet restrictions in place, this doesn’t change the fact that many were
negatively impacted by this misinformation in various manners. To minimize the spread of health

misinformation, I encourage you to sign the “Limit Misinformation” petition demanding

Congress pass a resolution imposing more restrictions on internet activity to protect citizens from

further endangering their health.

 Works Cited

2020 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics. Community Relations Service. (2023, April 4).
https://www.justice.gov/crs/highlights/2020-hate-crimes-statistics

Schaeffer, K. (2020, July 24). A look at the Americans who believe there is some truth to the
conspiracy theory that covid-19 was planned. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/24/a-look-at-the-americans-who-
believe-there-is-some-truth-to-the-conspiracy-theory-that-covid-19-was-planned/

Findling , M. G., Blendon , R. J., Benson, J., & Koh, H. (2022, April 12). Covid-19 has driven
racism and violence against Asian ... Health Affairs .
https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/covid-19-has-driven-racism-and-violence-
against-asian-americans-perspectives-12

Wasike, B. (2023, August 9). You’ve been fact-checked! examining the effectiveness of social
media fact-checking against the spread of misinformation. Telematics and Informatics
Reports. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772503023000506

Freedom of speech: General. Bill of Rights Institute. (n.d.).

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/freedom-of-speech-general

U.S. Constitution - First Amendment . Constitution Annotated. (n.d.).

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/

Calefati, J. (2020, July 13). Fact-check: Did Trump tell people to drink bleach to kill the
coronavirus?. Statesman.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/07/13/fact-check-did-
trump-tell-people-to-drink-bleach-to-kill-coronavirus/113754708/

Kluger, J. (2020, May 12). Accidental poisonings rise after Trump disinfectant comments. Time.
https://time.com/5835244/accidental-poisonings-trump/