Canada may have closed its physical border to the growing American disaster, but in the online world, disinformation is borderless and flowing freely. Allow me to demonstrate:

Politics & Dysinfo THREAD

Here is a recent comment in one of my local FB groups. I live in Ontario.

Doctors and coroners are deliberately misclassifying deaths? Where did this idea come from?

The particular poster didn't have any info on that for me. It pretty much devolved to insults (even after he wished me a nice day) and that's typically when I leave these convos.

I've been following MAGA-influenced disinformation in the US, so I'm actually familiar with this particular conspiracy theory (just not in Canada... yet).

I'll let one of its loudest Twitter proponents lay it out in his own words.

It's part of the ongoing MAGA mission to label #COVID19 a hoax. How else can you account for the massive death toll except to call it fake, just like the "hoax" itself?

You might want to pause the thread and go read this recent article by @sipappas for @sciam on how American #COVID19 deaths are counted (and why they might actually be UNDERcounts). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-covid-19-deaths-are-counted1/

Here's the part where disinformation flows across the borderless world of social media.

It's really more accurate to talk about borders between hyperpartisan groups than between nations.

Research on online echo chambers shows severe distrust of info originating from outside the group.

These are ideological borders, and they can be impenetrable.

Tracking the spread of dysinfo about falsified death certificates from the US to Canada led me to Rebel News, a far right, Trump-friendly Canadian outlet.

I found 2 "whistle-blower" interviews. One with a nurse who talks about excessive labelling of #COVID19 deaths.

And another with an emergency physician, who just repeats the conspiracy theory from the US, but doesn't make any specific claims about death certificate fraud in Canada.

I'm going to take a moment to point out that:
1) Nurses don't typically complete death certificates, so it's unclear to me what that claim is based on
2) Being "pressured" but also having "a lot of latitude" on death certificates sounds like 2 totally opposite work environments.

Here's the founder of Rebel News musing on the credibility of American #COVID19 stats. Note how the reply to him immediately takes his more subtle suggestion of fraud to the next level of organized, state-led conspiracy.

So, as unsubstantiated as the American conspiracy theory on fake death count data is, it's even LESS so in a Canadian context.

So that goes back to my original question to the local commenter: where are you getting the info that Canadian doctors are misclassifying deaths?

And the answer is: it doesn't matter if the dysinfo is Canadian or American. It's within the same ideological echo chamber so it's irrelevant which governments are implicated.

It's all part of the same grand conspiracy and there are no national borders in Conspiracy Land.

The relevance of my rumour chasing is to demonstrate to my Canadian colleagues that we can't ever hope to cordon off the disaster beyond our southern border.

The ideological echo chambers heightening the American crisis contain large swaths of Canadians.

Bottom line: politically-motivated American disinformation on #COVID19 has major ramifications for Canadian public health.

I urge my colleagues not to dismiss MAGA conspiracy theories as unimportant in the Canadian context. Now is the time to pay closer attention than ever.
FIN

@CaulfieldTim @jkwan_md @DanyaalRaza @IrfanDhalla @HislopMD @jonathanstea @ryarmst @thereal_truther @DrPChouinard @jddneary @gorskon @RyanMarino @Sarah_Mojarad @DrJenGunter @picardonhealth @drlesleybarron @carlyweeks @ETSshow @meganranney @jeffreym99 @NightShiftMD @YoniFreedhoff