WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has been the world's biggest driver of Covid-19 misinformation during the pandemic, a study from Cornell University said on Thursday .
They identified 522,472 news articles that reproduced or amplified misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic, or what the World Health Organisation has called the"infodemic." The authors found that comments by President Trump drove major spikes in the"miracle cures" topic, led by his April 24 press briefing where he mused on the possibility of using disinfectants inside the body to cure the coronavirus."We conclude therefore that the president of the United States was likely the largest driver of the Covid-19 misinformation 'infodemic'," the team wrote.
After miracle cures, the second-most prevalent misinformation topic was that the pandemic was created to advance a"new world order."