On March 30, when asked about Russia and China’s coronavirus disinformation campaigns, US President Donald Trump boldly proclaimed, “They do it and we do it...Every country does it,” in yet another brazen exhibition of either foolhardy honesty or a careless slip of the tongue.
During a rapidly escalating global pandemic, when an anxious public is looking to governments and international organizations for guidance and contextualization, Trump’s statements have further undermined the legitimacy of such actors and impeded the efforts of health workers in containing this virus. The inconsistent, contradictory statements from different governments, many of whom have openly engaged in a war of words, threaten to cause mass confusion and hysteria at a time where global coordination and cooperation is required to assuage fears and ensure compliance with disease control and prevention methods. World leaders like Trump and Iran’s Ali Khamenei, and international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) spout conflicting and readily refutable statements. Thus, state and non-state actors in positions of power have eroded public trust as people are no longer sure of where to look for the truth.
On January 22, Trump said the situation was “totally under control” and, on January 29, said the “risk of infection for Americans remains low”. On January 31, he said only 5 people in the US were infected and that the US had “pretty much shut it down”. On February 24, he reiterated that the situation was “very much under control”, and later said that the infection rate is actually much lower than what is being reported, that the symptoms are largely benign, and that people could even go to work while infected. In fact, on February 28, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney claimed that the virus was nothing to worry about, unlike the flu, Ebola, SARS, or MERS. Yet, just two days earlier, Trump had said that the coronavirus is “like a flu”. If, by his own administration’s standards, the flu is something to worry about, does likening the coronavirus to the flu not implicitly make it something to worry about, as well? As if that weren’t enough, after Mulvaney relinquished the stage, Trump predicted that the coronavirus was “going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle — it will disappear”.
Yet, as the situation began to deteriorate, with a rising number of cases and deaths, Trump backtracked and finally declared a national emergency on March 5, saying that he “NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work”, that he “always treated the [...] virus seriously”, and that he “felt it was a pandemic long before it was declared a pandemic”. Yet, in true Trumpian style, on March 9, he suggested that there was no reason to shut things down, adding on March 10 that the virus “will go away”. Similarly, on March 15, he said it’s something that he has “tremendous control over”, but, the very next day, he once again backtracked and said that it’s “not under control for any place in the world”.
This seesawing form of leadership, in which the nation’s president violently sways from saying there’s nothing to worry about to holding his hands up saying there’s nothing he can do, potentially engenders chaos as the public cannot be confident in its leader or ascertain the severity of the situation. Additionally, Trump’s claims that a vaccine will be rolled out “very soon”, despite health experts warning that it could take 12-18 months, could inspire a false sense of security at a time when greater caution is required.
The disastrous consequences of such directionless crisis management were demonstrated in the aftermath of Trump’s tweet that taking the anti-malarial drug chloroquine could be “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” in the treatment of COVID-19. He even suggested that it was Food and Drug Administration-approved (FDA). However, the FDA had only approved it for testing, and clinical trials had still not been conducted. Yet, since it had received the Presidential seal of approval, an Arizona husband and wife both guzzled down the first bottle they could find with chloroquine listed in its ingredients. Both fell extremely ill, and the husband died. It was revealed that they had not bought the pharmaceutical version of chloroquine phosphate; rather, they ingested an additive used to kill parasites in fish tanks and treat fish diseases.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
Similar instances of inconsistent statements and the promotion of unproven prescriptions have been observed across the globe. This may have contributed towards creating a misguided sense of optimism and freedom among the public.
For example, Trump’s chloroquine claims were regurgitated by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, his South American twin, who has mimicked him at every turn during the ongoing crisis. Bolsonaro has called the coronavirus a “little flu” and accused the Brazilian media of creating ‘hysteria’ and blowing the issue out of proportion. He has criticized such mayors and governors for implementing states of emergency and lockdowns, calling them “job killers” and ‘criminals’, and saying that the “economy comes first”. He has called for these cities and regions to reopen their schools and businesses, warning that “Brazil cannot stop or we’ll turn into Venezuela”.
Aside from his aggressive stance against strict quarantine and lockdown measures, Bolsonaro has also misled the Brazilian population about the necessity to follow medical guidelines, such as social distancing and self-isolation. In early March, he refused his medical team’s advice to self-isolate after several members of his delegation, who had flown to Florida and met with Trump, tested positive for the coronavirus. Instead, Bolsonaro was seen at a rally, “shaking hands, bumping fists, and slapping […] backs”.
In the United Kingdom (UK), there are emerging reports that National Health Service (NHS) doctors have been “gagged” from divulging information about protective equipment shortages. Some claim that managers have “threatened their careers”. Online publication The Independent revealed that staff have been sent a flurry of emails and messages warning them “not to speak to the media during the coronavirus outbreak”. In fact, NHS England has curiously “taken over” the media operations for several NHS hospitals and staff, claiming that it has done so to ensure the dissemination of “clear and consistent information” to the public. While a country can indeed ensure consistent information if there is only one source of information, the clarity of such information is muddied when there are egregious omissions of facts that could enhance the public’s understanding of the situation.
Closer to home, the Central Government of India requested that the Supreme Court approve a policy under which no media outlet can “print, publish or telecast” any coronavirus information “without first ascertaining facts from [...] the government”. The government argues that this is to prevent the circulation of misinformation that could create “panic” or “harm”. While measures to prevent the propagation of dangerous and false information are welcome and necessary, it also leaves the door open for abuses of power, wherein the government can use such directives to suppress even valid dissent against its containment measures. Given how the BJP has responded to criticism in the past, with India having implemented more internet shutdowns than any other country since 2014, this latest proposal once again leaves the door wide open for governmental malpractice. With reports pouring in about how India’s true coronavirus figures are likely much higher than what is being reported due to an alarming lack of testing and test centers, it remains to be seen how the Indian government will respond in the face of increased scrutiny. However, given the proposed policy of increased media control, it appears that the government has already begun designing apparatus that could theoretically allow it to deflect such criticism.
Likewise, spikes in sulfur dioxide levels in China’s most afflicted cities, Wuhan and Chongqing, during the height of the crisis in China, indicated mass burning of bodies, suggesting that the death count may be much higher than what has been reported. Additionally, doctors like Li Wenliang and Ai Fen have been silenced by authorities for “disturbing social atmosphere”, “making false comments”, and fearmongering. The government has also implemented strict censorship on political discourse across social media platforms. For example, 45 keywords are censored on live-streaming platform YY, and 516 on WeChat, including “Wuhan + CCP + Crisis + Beijing” and “Supplementary + Western medicine + Coronavirus”. Alongside these coverups, government officials like foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian espouse conspiracy theories that propose that the coronavirus was introduced to Wuhan by the US military.
2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020
In Iran, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ettela’at, otherwise known as the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), have cracked down on attempts to reveal the truth about the scale of the coronavirus crisis in the country. Both bodies have a looming presence across the nation, shadowing the movements of medical staff, journalists, and lawmakers, telling them what they can and can’t say, and even limiting the information that is made available to them. Furthermore, satellite imagery points to the excavation of “mass graves” to disguise the sheer scale of damage wrought by COVID-19. Alongside these blatant obfuscations of reality, the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, claims that the US “specifically built” the coronavirus for Iran.
Political commentators rightly criticize the multitude of curious coverups and circulations of wild conspiracy theories emanating from the Chinese and Iranian governments. However, the burgeoning anti-China sentiment and existing skepticism of Iranian leadership obscure the fact that similar disregard for the truth–and its accessibility–has been displayed across the globe. In the absence of uniform or trustworthy messaging from world governments, the public should be able to turn to independent non-governmental bodies. However, it seems that the legitimacy of even non-state actors has been compromised during the ongoing pandemic.
In early January, at a time when the current pandemic could have been prevented or at least severely restricted, the WHO, one of the world’s foremost health bodies, simply parroted the claims of the Chinese government. It reassured the world that the situation was under control despite mounting indications that the virus was beginning to spread. It reported that “all patients are isolated and receiving treatment”, didn't recommend “any specific measures for travelers”, advised against the imposition of “travel or trade restrictions on China”, and most importantly, claimed that there was no community transmission of the virus in the face of insurmountable proof suggesting otherwise. In February, the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that China's containment measures had “bought [...] the world time” and praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “political commitment” and “leadership”. Yet, there is overwhelming evidence that Chinese authorities “silenced whistleblowers and undercounted cases”. These events have severely corroded the legitimacy of the WHO. Moreover, it begs the question: if the world can’t trust the WHO, one of the world’s foremost health bodies, who can it trust?
In late March, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a passionate if not utopian rallying cry for a “global ceasefire”, in which countries put down their arms and collectively combat the coronavirus pandemic–“the true fight of our lives”. However, the bodies and people in charge of containing the spread of the virus have instead waged war on the truth. They have limited access to or distorted information about the severity of the crisis; this has in turn left a confused and disoriented public to make sense of an incoherent hodgepodge of incompatible accounts of and strategies for the virus. By sacrificing public awareness, state and non-state actors have undermined the efforts of health workers and threatened the efficacy of containment measures. As we move into a post-corona era, it will be interesting to see whether the ongoing pandemic will permanently eradicate the public trust in and legitimacy of these deceitful, erratic, and suppressive individuals and institutions.