This time, Donald Trump really is the best.
But it is, for once, a feat that the American president should not brag about.
He was named chief disseminator of false information on Covid-19 by researchers at Cornell University, United States, who conducted the first study on disinformation in the media in the time of the coronavirus, published Thursday, October 1.
This Lucky Luke's words of misinformation are at the origin of 37.9% of all articles conveying (intentionally or unintentionally) unfounded rumors about the disease, discovered these scientists, who analyzed 38 million English articles around the world, published between January and the end of May.
This is far more than all the other sources and amplifiers of "fake news" combined, whether from forums on the Internet or by commentators on ultra-conservative channels like One America Network.
"Miracle cures", the stars of disinformation
The media machine to spread misinformation about Covid-19 peaked on April 22.
That day Donald Trump had suggested, during a press point, to use UV rays or to inject disinfectant to fight against the coronavirus.
"Advice" which had aroused the consternation of the scientific community and, above all, led to the publication of more than 30,000 articles devoted to this presidential outing in a single day.
The "miracle cures" are, moreover, the most important source of disinformation at the time of the pandemic.
Nearly 300,000 articles concerning alleged cures for Covid-19 were posted online between January and the end of May.
This category generated more than half of all disinformation conveyed by the media during this period (522,400 articles, according to the authors of the study).
In addition to disinfectants and UV rays, hydroxychloroquine - the very controversial remedy touted by French microbiologist Didier Raoult - is the other big winner in disinformation about "miracle cures".
And here again, Donald Trump was one of the main promoters in the United States, going so far as to claim to have taken it himself.
For the president, extolling the merits of these "imaginary" treatments fulfills two very precise political objectives, estimates the Washington Post.
This ploy aims to minimize the danger of a virus it has been accused of not taking seriously enough, and it also gives the impression that the government is working hard to find "solutions".
But this political exploitation of false information has dangerous side effects, remind the study's authors.
She participates in "what the World Health Organization has called 'infodemic' [the viral circulation of rumors, editor's note] which complicates the fight against the pandemic because people who are misled by this disinformation are more likely not to follow official instructions and encourage the spread of the virus, "said Sarah Evanega, director of the Cornell Alliance for science and lead author of the study, interviewed by the New York Times.
Like father, like son
Donald Trump is not only the first of the apostles of "miracle cures".
He is also the main promoter of the second most popular category of "infox" in the media: conspiracy theories around a state within a state ("deep state" in Trumpian parlance) that would profit from the pandemic. .
The president thus accused the Food and drug agency (FDA) of being infiltrated by "deep state" agents who would do anything to slow down the development of a treatment against Covid -19.
When it's not the father, it's the son.
Donald Trump Jr. has done a lot to popularize the conspiratorial thesis that Democrats have exaggerated the dangerousness of Covid-19 to politically harm the president.
So much so that this theory finds itself in third position of the most viral false information about the pandemic.
The other categories of "infox" - such as the theories on the creation of the virus in a Chinese laboratory (essentially promoted by Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Donald Trump), on the role of 5G in the spread of Sars-Cov -2 or the accusations against Anthony Fauci, the chief virologist of the American administration - are far from having had the same media impact as the theses made by the president and his son, note the authors of the study.
This disinformation made in Washington is also the most successful on social networks.
Nothing equals, for example, the virality of discussions around "miracle cures": they concern 42% of the 32 million mentions of all unfounded rumors recorded by researchers at Cornell University.
But Donald Trump has been helped by the media in his enterprise of massive disinformation, regret the authors of the study.
Only 16% of all articles mentioning these ramblings fall under "fact checking", that is to say, checking the facts.
This finding suggests that "readers are exposed to a large amount of erroneous information which is not questioned by the media which echo it", notes the study.
A passive complicity which, too, has very real consequences on the behavior of individuals in the face of the virus.
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