Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story the rapid spread of virus misinformation has created
Speaker 1: twin crises for doctors, a pandemic and an infodemic. But first,
Speaker 1: here's what happened in virus news today. A House panel
Speaker 1: called the Trump Administration's response to the pandemic inefficient, ineffective,
Speaker 1: and inequitable. The sixty nine page report released by the
Speaker 1: House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis called the virus
Speaker 1: an American fiasco. The subcommittee said the administration's response is
Speaker 1: quote among the worst failures of leadership in American history.
Speaker 1: The report said that relief programs for workers and small
Speaker 1: businesses were weakened because the administration gave priority to bigger
Speaker 1: companies and inadequate financial controls led to significant fraud, waste,
Speaker 1: and abuse. The UK's drug regulator is speeding up reviews
Speaker 1: of COVID nineteen vaccines that Fiser and Astra Zeneca are developing.
Speaker 1: Britain hopes to approve the first successful shot as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency
Speaker 1: started a review of the Fiser vaccine in recent weeks,
Speaker 1: according to a person with knowledge of the situation. A
Speaker 1: spokesman for Astra Zenica confirmed that the agency is also
Speaker 1: conducting an expedited review of Astra's vaccine, which the company
Speaker 1: is co developing with the University of Oxford. Finally, a
Speaker 1: federal judge ruled against landlord groups who were seeking to
Speaker 1: block the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National
Speaker 1: moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus pandemic in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: U S District. Judge JP Booley said the public interest
Speaker 1: in controlling the spread of COVID nineteen outweighed the landlord's
Speaker 1: economic interest, saying their quote economic harm pales in comparison
Speaker 1: to the significant loss of lives that could occur if
Speaker 1: the order was blocked. And now for today's main story,
Speaker 1: the coronavirus is both a medical problem and a public
Speaker 1: health problem that's baked into its biology. But the pandemic
Speaker 1: in the US has been exacerbated by another challenge of
Speaker 1: our own, making, a pervasive atmosphere of distrust. That atmosphere
Speaker 1: has let misinformation about the virus flourish. That misinformation is
Speaker 1: often amplified by the man with the country's loudest megaphone,
Speaker 1: President Donald Trump. I spoke to healthcare reporter John Tazzi
Speaker 1: about how the information crisis has made practicing medicine in
Speaker 1: a pandemic even more difficult. I was wondering if you
Speaker 1: might just briefly sketch some of the misinformation or even
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories that we've been seeing surrounding COVID nineteen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think there's a range of things, everything from you know,
Speaker 1: people who believe that the virus is a hoax or
Speaker 1: that it's entirely made up, to allegations that doctors or
Speaker 1: hospitals are in free being the number of cases or
Speaker 1: the number of deaths attributed to covid um, which we
Speaker 1: haven't really seen evidence of, but it's a belief that's
Speaker 1: out there too. You know, more kind of common misunderstandings
Speaker 1: or just questions that people might not know, you know,
Speaker 1: good information about, like whether you know, does wearing a
Speaker 1: mask put you at risk of not getting enough oxygen?
Speaker 1: Doctors say that's not a risk, that there's no reason
Speaker 1: to not wear a mask, won't hurt your ability to breathe.
Speaker 1: But you know, some people have that kind of misconception
Speaker 1: as well. So it's really a gamut from very elaborate
Speaker 1: conspiracies to more common misconceptions. One doctor I spoke to
Speaker 1: said that, um, some of her patients were so afraid
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus that they were deferring needed medical care,
Speaker 1: which put their health at risk. Right, So that's, ah,
Speaker 1: you know, that's maybe not the same type of misinformation
Speaker 1: as we think of a conspiue racy saying the virus
Speaker 1: is a hoax. But you know, if people aren't able
Speaker 1: to kind of accurately gauge their own risk and are
Speaker 1: you know, differring important care that they need because they're
Speaker 1: afraid of catching COVID, you know, that can be a
Speaker 1: sort of other aspect of misinformation. And is there one
Speaker 1: particular source or how is this information or shall we
Speaker 1: say misinformation spreading? It's a good question, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's sort of a you know, it's a
Speaker 1: factor of the broader kind of information environment that we
Speaker 1: all live in right now, right where there's a flood
Speaker 1: of information from many sources, and the World Health Organization
Speaker 1: actually identified this very early on before COVID nineteen was
Speaker 1: even declared a pandemic. The w h O identified what
Speaker 1: it called an infodemic UM. So the sort of flood
Speaker 1: of information, both accurate and not that makes it hard
Speaker 1: for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable information when
Speaker 1: they need it. They said that February second, and since then,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we've just seen this proliferate on
Speaker 1: social media, you know, from other sources, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's sort of the elephant in the room. But the
Speaker 1: President of the United States UM has routinely and repeatedly
Speaker 1: made false statements about COVID nineteen. And you know, one
Speaker 1: analysis from Cornell University actually identified President Trump as the
Speaker 1: largest source of misinformation about the virus. So you know,
Speaker 1: when those messages get amplified in all sorts of ways
Speaker 1: in the media, on television and social media, there's not
Speaker 1: I think a single source. But we're in an environment
Speaker 1: with high levels of distrust for all sorts of institutions,
Speaker 1: and you know, and the media, UM extreme political polarization
Speaker 1: days before an election in UM, and you know, the
Speaker 1: science and public health advice and that has been kind
Speaker 1: of wrapped up in that. I mean, is that part
Speaker 1: and parcel of just how quickly in some ways all
Speaker 1: this has come about in that because there was just
Speaker 1: no information about COVID nineteen, and we've been, even from
Speaker 1: a scientific perspective, trying to just find out more and more.
Speaker 1: There has been understandably some false starts in terms of
Speaker 1: developing therapeutics, developing medicines, theories about what might be successful
Speaker 1: in treating COVID nineteen. Do you think that has lent
Speaker 1: to this perspective perhaps by some that they just don't
Speaker 1: know what information to trust. Yeah, I think that's I
Speaker 1: think that's right. I mean, one interesting thing that someone
Speaker 1: I interviewed, the head of the American Medical Association, actually
Speaker 1: mentioned to me was that as we learn more about coronavirus,
Speaker 1: the coronavirus and how it affects people, and how it
Speaker 1: spreads and how to treat it. You know, as the
Speaker 1: kind of world of scientific evidence proliferates, there's misinformation proliferating
Speaker 1: for you know, each of those points. Right, So, as
Speaker 1: we learn more about potential vaccines that are in development,
Speaker 1: there's more misinformation about vaccines. As we learn more about
Speaker 1: ways to keep it from spreading, misinformation proliferates around those
Speaker 1: guidelines so you know, it is a really tough thing
Speaker 1: I think for people in general. UM, this is a
Speaker 1: new virus. We are learning, or at least in the
Speaker 1: early days, we're learning in real time. Some recommendations change
Speaker 1: based on things we learned, and that's how science works. UM.
Speaker 1: But I think it can make it really hard for people,
Speaker 1: you know, even in good faith, trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to behave in an environment with a lot of
Speaker 1: uncertainty and all of competing sources of information. The early
Speaker 1: recommendations in the United States where that people shouldn't wear masks.
Speaker 1: That was because there was a shortage of masks and
Speaker 1: the policymakers were concerned that, you know, people buying up
Speaker 1: surgical masks would make it harder for healthcare workers who
Speaker 1: needed them. UM. But as we learned more about how
Speaker 1: the virus could spread among people who had no symptoms, UM,
Speaker 1: that was that was an important way that the virus spread,
Speaker 1: the recommendations for face coverings came out. We're learning new
Speaker 1: things and have to adapt to that, and but that
Speaker 1: change can create I think an environment where people can
Speaker 1: misunderstand things, or people who are deliberately trying to manipulate
Speaker 1: information or behavior. UM. Have an opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1: You know, as we anticipate the the availability and the
Speaker 1: distribution of the a COVID nineteen vaccine, how do you
Speaker 1: see that amount of distrust potentially affecting the success of
Speaker 1: this vaccine In terms of impacting the risk to COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: I think it is a It is a big risk
Speaker 1: that we will have a vaccine that works, that has
Speaker 1: been uh, you know, proven in rigorous clinical trials, and
Speaker 1: that a large chunk of the population will not want
Speaker 1: to take it because they don't trust it or they
Speaker 1: don't trust the authorities who have said that it is
Speaker 1: authorized or safe to take. I think, you know, we're
Speaker 1: going to be having that conversation. Um, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: in a few months. I think the President suggested that
Speaker 1: a vaccine would be ready sooner than his scientific advisors said.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of suspicion and allegations that there were,
Speaker 1: you know, efforts to accelerate a vaccine for political purposes
Speaker 1: and to have something authorized before the election. It seems
Speaker 1: like that's not going to happen now. But and then
Speaker 1: on the you know, the response of some Democratic governors
Speaker 1: has been to say that they want to independently have
Speaker 1: their states vet a vaccine that's approved, you know, even
Speaker 1: after a Food and Drug Administration authorization. So you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's unprecedented and it's pretty dangerous territory in
Speaker 1: some ways. UM. And you know, the data from polling
Speaker 1: Gamma polls show that the number of the percentage of
Speaker 1: people who said they'd be willing to take an FDA
Speaker 1: approved vaccine has declined substantially since the summer. Um. Maybe
Speaker 1: that will be reversed, but it's a it's a concern
Speaker 1: that doctors expressed to me that you know, all this
Speaker 1: work and all this really tremendous scientific enterprise to get
Speaker 1: to a shot in record time, UM, you know, will
Speaker 1: be diminished if people don't take it. And and that's
Speaker 1: you know, that's not a question of science. That's a
Speaker 1: question of human behavior and trust and kind of where
Speaker 1: we are as a society. And you know, we'll find
Speaker 1: out more about that in the months ahead. And that
Speaker 1: was John Tozzi And that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus
Speaker 1: around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and
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Speaker 1: The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by top foreheads Jordan's Gospore,
Speaker 1: Magnus Henrickson, and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was
Speaker 1: reported by John Tozzi. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our
Speaker 1: editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening. H