Is There A Plot Against Trump Using Coronavirus?

With two months until Election Day, President Trump is promoting at least nine baseless conspiratorial tales about protests, the coronavirus, voting, and more. Trump’s treatment for Covid-19 has spawned baseless rumours and conspiracy theories, including body doubles, oxygen tanks, and more. Many of these rumors appear to be politically motivated. Trump has also appeared to undercut his own intelligence agencies by suggesting he has seen evidence coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory. Misinformation about the coronavirus has particularly taken root in Facebook groups for anti-vaccine advocates and believers in QAnon, a broad, right-wing conspiracy theory.

Trump fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the pandemic, embracing theories that COVID-19 accounted for only a small portion. The Wuhan lab leak theory, once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, has gained respectability although it still remains harmful. A video falsely claiming that COVID-19 was planned to remove U.S. President Donald Trump from office has been circulating online.

Research shows that beliefs in two popular variants of COVID-19 conspiracy theory are the joint product of psychological predispositions. During an epidemic, misinformation proliferates as fear grows, posing further damage to public health. Trump is not just embracing QAnon supporters but also promoting at least nine baseless conspiracy theories. Conspiracy spreads and becomes profitable when the president says there are no trusted news sources, making every source potentially trustworthy. The coronavirus pandemic primed America for a new pandemic of misinformation.