[Thread] 1/ This thread is on how Donald Trump's inarticulate suggestion that injecting disinfectant or conducting light therapy might kill #Covid_19. I downloaded 25000 tweets, RTs, mentions etc from around 13,000 unique accounts. I searched for tweets mentioning the term

2/ "Blood" and "irradiation". The reason for this is that following Trump's address a number of his loyal Twitter fans sought to rationalise his stupidity by implying that actually he knew what he was talking about by claiming he was referring to Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation -

3/ a form of therapy used mostly in the 40s and 50s (before widespread penicillin availability). What's interesting is that this narrative, which implies Trump is knowledgeable on facts, is patently false, as Trump himself acknowledged he was being sarcastic (which he wasn't)

4/ Also, it is patently dangerous to have people clamouring for unproven treatments about how to cure Covid_19, and it is likely that this 'alternative cure' will cloud the Corona Virus infosphere with more unhelpful disinformation and distraction - just like chloroquine

5/ Here's a network graph of those talking about blood irradiation therapy. The nodes are sized by those who get mentioned the most or who are retweeted the most. So we can zoom in to see a little more about who was trying to put words into Trump's mouth... #Covid_19

6/ This account @sun_q_tzu got retweeted a lot. They appear to be a Qanon account, suggesting Trump somehow knows what he is talking about. He shared a peer-reviewed article about ultraviolet blood irradiation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122858/

7/ Another, highly retweeted non anonymous account and verified account is @robbystarbuck . He clearly knows Trump's mind more than Trump himself. Our old friend @cjtruth makes an appearance too, sharing the same medical article. (Of course the irony is not lost one me that

8/ people embrace peer-reviewed science journals after generally embracing conspiracy theories that have no base in science or reason when it comes to supporting their ideological inclination to back Trump....

9/ Other popular tweets include this one, which got a thousand lights. The account in question @wardamn5 seems to suggest that there is a conspiracy of doctors trying to prevent people getting cures. But the saviour Trump will put an end to that! #Covid_19

10/ Here's another one of the accounts implying Trump of course is promoting extracorporeal photopheresis. I mean if Trump wanted to say Extracorporeal photopheresis, I am sure he would have said it right...This account is another Qanon type..

11/ In case it wasn't obvious by now, a large proportion of accounts discussing blood irradiation are pro-Trump. 43% of around 12,000 have either MAGA, KAG, Qanon or Trump in their bios. This is particularly interesting as they are talking about something Trump never really said

12/ and of course, this is mostly a massive distraction from Trump''s most ludicrous comment, which involved suggesting the injection of disinfectant. I wish those sharing scientific journal articles would show the same diligence with 5g...Confirmation bias is a terrible thing

13/ There are a few verified accounts involved in the discussion. This widely followed @mitchellvii fella seems to imply that Big Pharma might be hiding UVC therapy. Watch out Big Pharma. Also Fauci does not escape Bill's rancour -cos Fauci is advocating science, but not the

14/ 'right' science, or perhaps that should read, 'right wing' science. Anyway, I'm done for now, my faith in humanity meter is extremely low, so time for a cup of tea. Please feel free to retweet or ask questions. Bye for now #Covid_19