Anatomy of a covid conspiracy | Lexington County Chronicle

The Chronicle’s covid-related information is available free as a public service. We appeciate our advertisers and subscribers who make this possible.

Many of us have long suspected disinformation in the covid disease spread.
Now the Associated Press has turned up damning data on those who spread covid disinformation and misinformtion.
As the coronavirus spread, so too did speculation about its origins. 
Did the virus escape from a Chinese lab? 
Was it engineered as a bioweapon?
Legitimate questions about the virus created perfect conditions for conspiracy theories. 
In the absence of knowledge, propaganda flourished, the AP reported.
College professors with no training in virology were touted as experts. 
Anonymous social media users posed as high-level intelligence officials. 
From China to Iran to Russia to the US, government officials amplified claims for their own motives.
The Associated Press worked with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab on a 9-month investigation to identify those behind some of the most viral misinformation. 
Their claims were explosive. Their evidence was weak. 
For more on the superspreaders of misinformation, go to 
https://thetandd.com/news/national/these-are-the-superspreaders-behind-t…

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Lexington County Chronicle can be found here ***