The other virus: distrust rides high on the back of COVID-19

Last week Patten brokered a compromise deal which gave the Victorian government a six-month extension of its powers to declare the pandemic an ongoing state of emergency.

It was a far cry from the permanent 12-month legislative change the government had initially sought. But in the eyes of some, who are aggrieved about the harsh lockdown restrictions in Victoria, Patten is a traitor.

“I’ve been piled on before, but I’ve never seen this level of aggression and threats of violence. There’s an incredible anger, which frankly has been quite frightening.”

Patten says some of the conspiracy theories have been “completely crazy”. But what troubles her more is the lack of trust in government and public institutions.

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Patten’s office was repeatedly told the State Coroner was “lying” when he released data showing there had been no increase in the number of people dying by suicide during the pandemic.

When Patten pointed out the Australian Medical Association had supported the six-month state of emergency extension, she was asked “Why would you trust the AMA?”.

“It’s that level of distrust,” Patten says.

She says fringe groups such as anti-vaxxers and men’s rights groups – who already distrust government – are coalescing around COVID-19 conspiracy theories. “I honestly don’t know how to address this,” she adds.

Disease and disasters have long been fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

When the bubonic plague – spread by fleas – killed about a third of Europe’s population in the 1300s, Christians accused Jews of poisoning their wells.

More recently the 9/11 terror attacks spawned widespread conspiracy theories, including that the US government had been involved and there had been advance warning.

“Whenever there’s any kind of major crisis there is an information vacuum – particularly at the start – when government agencies don’t necessarily have all the answers,” says Professor Axel Bruns from the Queensland University of Technology.

This is compounded by the erosion of public trust in governments and mainstream media across the world.

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The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that none of the four societal institutions that the study measures – government, business, NGOs and the media – is trusted.

“This pandemic comes at a particularly vulnerable time in many countries because there is so little trust,” Bruns says. “If people don’t feel they are getting the full picture from officials, they look to alternative sources of information.”

An Essential poll of more than 1000 Australians in May found one in five believed the number of COVID-19 deaths had been exaggerated by the media and governments to scare the population.

Twelve per cent believed it was definitely or probably true that the 5G wireless network was being used to spread the COVID-19 virus.

Bruns was among a group of researchers who looked at conspiracy theories on Facebook that the virus was caused or exacerbated by 5G technology.

This had already led to mobile phone towers being attacked in Britain and the Netherlands in April.

The researchers found pre-existing conspiracy groups argued the coronavirus justified and proved their claims.

Anti-5G groups, for example, linked COVID-19 to the installation of the technology because Wuhan was one of several Chinese cities where early 5G trials took place.

Anti-vaccination groups claimed the pandemic was staged to introduce a mass vaccination program to bring the world population under control.

“These sort of people are already saying vaccines are population control instruments containing microchips,” Bruns says. “The virus created a perfect storm for conspiracy theories.”

The researchers found celebrities and social media fanned misinformation beyond established conspiracist communities.

Actor Woody Harrelson posted an article on Instagram – later deleted – that drew links between the virus outbreak in Wuhan and 5G installation there.

In Australia, former celebrity chef Pete Evans was fined $25,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration after he claimed a device known as a BioCharger, which claimed to replicate light, frequencies, harmonics, pulsed electromagnetic fields and voltage found in nature, could be used in relation to “Wuhan Coronavirus”.

The TGA said this claim had no apparent foundation.

Conspiracy theorists also widely circulated Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly’s claims that “groupthink” and the “complete abandonment of reason” were driving a “war” on hydroxychloroquine, a controversial treatment for COVID-19.

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Last month acting chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said hydroxychloroquine had been used early in the pandemic and it showed promise as a potential preventative or curative medicine.

“It’s now undergone multiple trials around the world, and everyone has agreed that it … has not lived up to that promise … So the medical advice is it is not useful as a medicine,” Kelly added.

University of Sydney researchers found men and people aged 18 to 25 were more likely to believe COVID-19 myths.

Behavioural scientist Dr Carissa Bonner says their initial survey showed younger people and men were more likely to think the benefit of herd immunity was covered up and the threat of COVID-19 was exaggerated.

Younger people were more likely to believe cure myths, such as vitamin C and hydroxychloroquine being effective treatments. Those with lower education and more social disadvantage were more likely to believe 5G was being used to spread the virus.

However Bonner says the prevalence of the 5G conspiracy theory is very low, with less than 1 per cent of those surveyed holding this belief. The researchers say there is a need for more targeted research with young Australians and men in particular about why some of them believe these myths and what might change their mind.

Leading up to Saturday, online activists organised an Australia-wide action known as the “Day of Freedom” – the latest in a series of protests against COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the government.

Dr Kaz Ross, a researcher on online communities from the University of Tasmania, says issues raised at these protests often include 5G, government surveillance and vaccinations.

She says one general conspiracy theory – QAnon – now unites these disparate groups.

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QAnon, which started on the anonymous message board 4chan in 2017, is centred on the baseless allegation that US President Donald Trump is working to expose a ring of pedophiles run by figures including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and the “deep state”. (The term deep state generally refers to a shadow or parallel system of government.)

QAnon has grown to encompass other hardcore conspiracies. Trump has shared posts from QAnon followers on his social media accounts and said of the movement: “I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”

Republican Marjorie Taylor, a QAnon supporter, is almost certain to be elected to Congress in November.

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The QAnon movement is also growing in popularity in Australia.

An Institute for Strategic Dialogue report in July found the top four countries driving discussion of QAnon on Twitter were the US, Britain, Canada and Australia.

“If you had surveyed Australians before the pandemic, very few people would have heard of QAnon,” Ross says.

But she says that since March, people have been increasingly posting QAnon conspiracy theories on social media. These theories include the existence paedophile cabals, children held in tunnels under Melbourne and 5G being rolled out during lockdown so people can be microchipped when the vaccine comes.

Ross believes QAnon is attracting followers in Australia because it provides an opportunity for people to share unconventional ideas and concerns without being mocked.

“It provides an overall framework that is quite familiar to us – a quite comforting narrative of good versus evil and a reassurance that there is a plan,” she says.

“This year does feel very biblical. We have had a summer of fire and brimstone and now we are onto the plague. People are troubled and looking for explanations.”

On August 19 Facebook announced it was taking action against Facebook pages and groups and Instagram accounts tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organisations and QAnon.

“We have seen growing movements that, while not directly organising violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behaviour,” Facebook said in a statement.

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More than 790 groups, 100 pages and 1500 ads tied to QAnon were deleted from Facebook. The previous month Twitter had also cracked down on QAnon accounts, although followers quickly circumvented the ban by introducing new hashtags such as #savethechildren.

In one sense of course, banning and removing groups confirms the views of QAnon followers that the deep state is out to get them and suppress the truth.

However Bruns, from the Queensland University of Technology, believes the bans have a role to play. “They keep ordinary users from being drawn into hardcore and ultimately dangerous conspiracy theories.”

Ross, from the University of Tasmania, also points to the need for governments and institutions to build trust by being transparent about the reasons for their actions and avoid triggering panic around sensitive issues such as compulsory vaccinations.

(Prime Minister Scott Morrison sparked alarm when he spoke of a mandatory vaccine, although he later clarified it was not going to be compulsory.)

Cam Smith produces a podcast called The Hypothetical Institute, which examines conspiracies and their theorists.

He believes the simplest – although he admits not very conspiratorial – explanation for why conspiracy theories are gaining traction in the pandemic is that people have a lot more time to disappear down rabbit holes on the internet.

Smith says people are coming across websites talking about child abuse in tunnels under Melbourne and some believe they are more legitimate than what they are hearing from official sources.

“We need to look at media literacy and why people are so mistrustful of institutions,” Smith says. “You can’t just solve this by flicking a switch.”