Covid misinformation came from just 12 people

[Silver]

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds

CCDH finds ‘disinformation dozen’ have combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms

On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies.

The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.

CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. CCDH analysed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden focused on misinformation around vaccines this week as a driving force of the virus spreading.

Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Edited July 17, 2021 by ted hughes

[GlitterRose]

4 minutes ago, ted hughes said:

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds

CCDH finds ‘disinformation dozen’ have combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms

On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies.

The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.

CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen” have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. CCDH analysed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden focused on misinformation around vaccines this week as a driving force of the virus spreading.

Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds | Coronavirus | The Guardian

There are simply people who will continue to believe whatever they read on Twitter and FB.

There is nothing anyone can do to save them from Darwin Awarding themselves out of existence. 

[lightly]

I cannot understand what anyone would gain by lieing about the vaccines.   ???    Anyway, deliberately releasing misleading views, which you KNOW are misleading, which result in Death..sounds criminal to me.

[GlitterRose]

2 minutes ago, lightly said:

I cannot understand what anyone would gain by lieing about the vaccines.   ???    Anyway, deliberately releasing misleading views, which you KNOW are misleading, which result in Death..sounds criminal to me.

Social Darwinism. 

[lightly]

29 minutes ago, GlitterRose said:

Social Darwinism. 

Social DEvolution.    I truely wonder if Modern life is making man's brains grow feeble.. .    So many seem so DIM to me...absolutely retarded.  Mentally numbed. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by lightly

[GlitterRose]

I was responding to what would possibly be to gain from lying about the vaccines.

If one was a believer in Social Darwinism, they might use lies about the vaccines to convince a segment of the population not to take them, and put themselves at risk. 

It could also just be to see if they can get people to believe outrageous things and put themselves at risk over it. 

Some people are just not nice. 

I also wonder if it may be linked to a desire to knock down the population, in general. 

[Kismit]

37 minutes ago, lightly said:

I cannot understand what anyone would gain by lieing about the vaccines.   ???    Anyway, deliberately releasing misleading views, which you KNOW are misleading, which result in Death..sounds criminal to me.

There are reasons why some groups would embrace andhelp spread misinformation.  Unfortunately control of the minds of a population is often more important to these groups than the value of individual lives. 

It's a new kind of war in a sense,  and it's being fought for the same reasons, control, power and resources. 

Misinformation started by fools and embraced by the ruthless all drowning the individual. 

We live in a time when the tinfoil hat is probably a good investment.  Be skeptical,  even when it feels like it should be true.

[Kismit]

2 minutes ago, GlitterRose said:

I was responding to what would possibly be to gain from lying about the vaccines.

If one was a believer in Social Darwinism, they might use lies about the vaccines to convince a segment of the population not to take them, and put themselves at risk. 

It could also just be to see if they can get people to believe outrageous things and put themselves at risk over it. 

Some people are just not nice. 

I also wonder if it may be linked to a desire to knock down the population, in general. 

Reason 1. Anti Vax, is often rooted in anti abortion,  due to the misreporting of Festus tissues in vaccines. ( This is used for spiritual/religious control) that is why a lot of misinformation was spread through pages with alternative medicine ideas and groups with high religious followings. 

Reason 2: a political group in opposition has a lot to gain by making a current administration look bad. By spreading or encouraging the spread of anti Vax, anti mask, anti science information they increase a death toll that makes the political group in power look bad. 

Reason 3: Governments on the world stage can significantly reduce an economy in another nation. Particularly nations which can be receptive to the magical thinking of pseudoscience.  

There are loads more reasons why unscrupulous people would help spread misinformation. And they all come down to power and control. 

I'm a proud tinfoil hat owner.

[GlitterRose]

11 minutes ago, Kismit said:

Reason 1. Anti Vax, is often rooted in anti abortion,  due to the misreporting of Festus tissues in vaccines. ( This is used for spiritual/religious control) that is why a lot of misinformation was spread through pages with alternative medicine ideas and groups with high religious followings. 

Reason 2: a political group in opposition has a lot to gain by making a current administration look bad. By spreading or encouraging the spread of anti Vax, anti mask, anti science information they increase a death toll that makes the political group in power look bad. 

Reason 3: Governments on the world stage can significantly reduce an economy in another nation. Particularly nations which can be receptive to the magical thinking of pseudoscience.  

There are loads more reasons why unscrupulous people would help spread misinformation. And they all come down to power and control. 

I'm a proud tinfoil hat owner.

The average person parroting anti-vaxx conspiracy theories might believe them, but I don't think the big movers and shakers in this do.

In my opinion, they also didn't believe any of the climate change denying bunk they were peddling. 

I think these things may be related, as they knew what was coming and that resources would be limited. 

Whether COVID was manufactured or not, there were certainly leaders who decided to do little to hinder it...some to the point of enacting policy that would have allowed/or did allow mass infection.

Edited July 17, 2021 by GlitterRose

[Kismit]

I don't believe that the average person pushing misinformation is doing it out of malice. Infact I believe that they are doing I because they really believe that they are helping people,  but not everyone is average,  and there are certainly some people willing to risk your life to push their agenda. 

And we all fall for the smile of an untrue friend occasionally.  This is why it's really important Not to cut people off but to keep communicating. 

[+Hammerclaw]

Anti Vax people have been around a lot longer than Covid and secure in the righteousness of their position, hard to dissuade. They're sprinkled on both sides of the aisle, so politics is secondary to them. We had some lively discussions with a New Zealand Maori, here a few years ago, because she refused flu vaccinations for her children. Anti Vaxers are highly irrational and some are highly intellectual. It's not just the province of the unwashed masses being led down a dangerous cul-de-sac. The one's actively spreading disinformation are an eclectic lot, not unlike Bigfoot, UFO and Nessie enthusiasts; they're very dedicated to and have very rational arguments for what they've chosen to believe. There may be a scattering of political wackos here and there's trying to profit off the chaos they cause, but they are mere sparks, rising from the fire that was already burning.

[lightly]

2 hours ago, Kismit said:

There are reasons why some groups would embrace andhelp spread misinformation.  Unfortunately control of the minds of a population is often more important to these groups than the value of individual lives. 

It's a new kind of war in a sense,  and it's being fought for the same reasons, control, power and resources. 

Misinformation started by fools and embraced by the ruthless all drowning the individual. 

We live in a time when the tinfoil hat is probably a good investment.  Be skeptical,  even when it feels like it should be true.

Maybe more like...Misinformation started by the ruthless and embraced by fools?  

[GlitterRose]

28 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Anti Vax people have been around a lot longer than Covid and secure in the righteousness of their position, hard to dissuade. They're sprinkled on both sides of the aisle, so politics is secondary to them. We had some lively discussions with a New Zealand Maori, here a few years ago, because she refused flu vaccinations for her children. Anti Vaxers are highly irrational and some are highly intellectual. It's not just the province of the unwashed masses being led down a dangerous cul-de-sac. The one's actively spreading disinformation are an eclectic lot, not unlike Bigfoot, UFO and Nessie enthusiasts; they're very dedicated to and have very rational arguments for what they've chosen to believe. There may be a scattering of political wackos here and there's trying to profit off the chaos they cause, but they are mere sparks, rising from the fire that was already burning.

Not really that much longer in the scheme of things...and far fewer people were affected.

It used to be a very fringe far-left group afraid of the MMR vaccine, and everyone else thought they were off their rockers. 

Back in the day, when polio and smallpox needed to be dealt with, it doesn't seem like this was a thing. 

 

[GlitterRose]

4 minutes ago, lightly said:

Maybe more like...Misinformation started by the ruthless and embraced by fools?  

Misinformation is generous. It assumes that the ruthless didn't know it wasn't true.

[Katniss]

3 hours ago, Kismit said:

Reason 2: a political group in opposition has a lot to gain by making a current administration look bad. By spreading or encouraging the spread of anti Vax, anti mask, anti science information they increase a death toll that makes the political group in power look bad. 

 

I feel number 2 as mostly likely. In the news people were celebrating Biden not meeting his vaccine quota by July 4th.

[Kismit]

9 hours ago, Katniss said:

I feel number 2 as mostly likely. In the news people were celebrating Biden not meeting his vaccine quota by July 4th.

There is also a media and YouTube media that make money from misinformation 

[Dark_Grey]

On 7/17/2021 at 12:11 PM, GlitterRose said:

There are simply people who will continue to believe whatever they read on Twitter and FB.

You could say the same about people who craft their world view off CNN.

So a non-profit determined just 12 people are responsible for 527,800 posts? ~44,000 posts/person?

Quote

Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Why won't they name these 12 people? More importantly, what are these physicians saying that qualifies as "pesudoscience"?

You can't trust Facebook or the WH to be the arbiter of truth, especially when it comes to covid. They can try and blame "misinformation" as the reason people aren't getting vaccinated but maybe they should try addressing the concerns those people have instead. Concerns like "why did my grandma die after her second vaccine?" Remember 3 years ago when everyone knew not to trust pharmaceutical companies with greater revenue than the GDP of some countries? What happened to that skepticism?

[Knob Oddy]

I think "misinformation" is an overused word. How can we tell it's misinformation? Because the person who you believe calls it that?

We cannot find the real information because it is being suppressed. Can anyone tell me the rate of miscarriages for pregnant women who have had the Pfizer vaccine?

No, because that information is suppressed. I have heard that Pfizer themselves, when developing the vaccine, have claimed that 12% of women who had the vaccine while pregnant miscarried. I can't find that online, it may be misinformation, but there is no public record to show the rate of miscarriage.

So if you cannot find the information, what should you do? Just blindly trust politicians when they say that they are the only source of truth in this pandemic? 

More information, be it false or misleading, should lead to more debates between authorities. This would lead to the public seeing for themselves what experts are saying.

Unfortunately, we have governments colluding with big tech to censor any idea or information which they deem to "cause harm". Even if that information is true. Here's the white house saying that they are in regular contact with silicon valley and request greater censorship by all platforms to posts that "cause harm". 

 

[+Desertrat56]

On 7/17/2021 at 1:01 PM, ted hughes said:

though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies.

Which particular vaccine are you referring to?  In the 90's the FDA  deemed a drug safe that killed a very high percentage of people who used it.   The vaccines has not been tested properly and has not been in use long enough for anyone to deem it safe.   Based on the method of creating two of the vaccines I suspect the data will not be in for several more years, and those are the two the FDA is pushing.   Since the other two were created using tried and true methods that have been used in vaccines for a long time I am not as suspicious of those, and the reports that are blasted all over about their dangers are what makes me even more suspicious of the mRNA versions.   You can live in your bubble and I will live in mine and we have not reason to shame each other.    This issue should not be a political, or emotional issue.   And anyone as old as I am can remember all the craziness that went on when the flu vaccine was first used in the U.S.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Desertrat56

[F3SS]

3 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

The vaccines has not been tested properly and has not been in use long enough for anyone to deem it safe.

That's my biggest problem with it. My biggest concern I should say. Strange thing is that I feel like the fda has to approve all the widely used vaccines no matter what. They can't let those who refused have their moment of victory and they can't tell all the millions who took it that it's not safe. Social and political acceptance trumps all good will and common sense these days. 

[psyche101]

2 hours ago, F3SS said:

That's my biggest problem with it. My biggest concern I should say. Strange thing is that I feel like the fda has to approve all the widely used vaccines no matter what. They can't let those who refused have their moment of victory and they can't tell all the millions who took it that it's not safe. Social and political acceptance trumps all good will and common sense these days. 

Did you know that mRNA vaccines have been trialed science 2009? 

Not for covid obviously but for more serious ailments like cancer. It's never been used as a flu vaccine before but it's hardly brand new. 

[Essan]

6 hours ago, psyche101 said:

Did you know that mRNA vaccines have been trialed science 2009? 

Not for covid obviously but for more serious ailments like cancer. It's never been used as a flu vaccine before but it's hardly brand new. 

Which obvious proves they had been planning this mass decimation of global population via mind controlling magnetic microchip vaccines for at least 10 years before unleashing the fake pandemic

[Raptor Witness]

A viral army with no brain, can outwit U.S., revealing that truth matters.

A plague is where choosing the truth matters most. Where life is choosing the truth, and where lies lead to death.

The Liar in Chief was one man.

 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Raptor Witness

[+Desertrat56]

14 hours ago, F3SS said:

That's my biggest problem with it. My biggest concern I should say. Strange thing is that I feel like the fda has to approve all the widely used vaccines no matter what. They can't let those who refused have their moment of victory and they can't tell all the millions who took it that it's not safe. Social and political acceptance trumps all good will and common sense these days. 

Yes, but that is not normally how it works.   There was political and financial pressure for the FDA to approve the Moderna and Pfizer/Biontech vaccines in a hurry AND it had nothing to do with Trump.   They took a little more time with the Johnson & Johnson, which seems bass ackwards to me, as the J&J was based on methodology that has been used since vaccines were perfected in the "olden days" and the other two are based on immunotherapies that have only been in use for about 10 years.  

 

P.S.  I just re-read your post and I am appalled that when you used the word "trump" as it should be I thought of Trump.   I have a new trigger word apparently  

Edited July 21, 2021 by Desertrat56

[rashore]

7 minutes ago, Raptor Witness said:

A viral army with no brain, can outwit U.S., revealing that truth matters.

A plague is where choosing the truth matters most. Where life is choosing the truth, and where lies lead to death.

The Liar in Chief was one man.

 

Knock it off with the Liar in Chief commentary please. It's politically flame-baiting and just stirring the pot.