Individuals with large followings can influence public opinions and behaviors, especially during a pandemic. In the early days of the COVID pandemic, US president Donald J Trump endorsed the use of unproven therapies. Subsequently, a death attributed to the wrongful ingestion of a chloroquine-containing compound occurred.
This paper investigated Donald J Trump’s speeches and Twitter posts, as well as Google searches and Amazon purchases, and television airtime for mentions of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, azithromycin, and remdesivir. Twitter sourcing was catalogued with Factba.se, and analytics data, both past and present, were analyzed with Tweet Binder to assess average analytics data on key metrics. Donald J Trump’s time spent discussing unverified treatments on the United States’ 5 largest TV stations was catalogued with the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, and his speech transcripts were obtained from White House briefings. Google searches and shopping trends were analyzed with Google Trends. Amazon purchases were assessed using Helium 10 software.
From March 1 to April 30, 2020, Donald J Trump made 11 tweets about unproven therapies and mentioned these therapies 65 times in White House briefings, especially touting hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. These tweets had an impression reach of 300% above Donald J Trump’s average. Following these tweets, at least 2% of airtime on conservative networks for treatment modalities like azithromycin and continuous mentions of such treatments were observed on stations like Fox News. Google searches and purchases increased following his first press conference on March 19, 2020, and increased again following his tweets on March 21, 2020. The same is true for medications on Amazon, with purchases for medicine substitutes, such as hydroxychloroquine, increasing by 200%.
The authors concluded that individuals in positions of power can sway public purchasing, resulting in undesired effects when the individuals’ claims are unverified. Public health officials must work to dissuade the use of unproven treatments for COVID-19.
Trump is by no means the only politician who misled the public in matters of healthcare through ignorance, or stupidity, or both. Other recent examples that we previously discussed include, for instance:
- Kirsty Adams (UK) – UK politician dabbles in faith healing
- Andrew Bridgen (UK) – British politician punished for calling COVID-vaccination the “biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust”
- Norbert Hofer (Austria) – When politicians become snake-oil salesmen
- Penny Mordaunt (UK) – Penny Mordaunt, defender of homeopathy
- Jeremy Corbyn (UK) – Jeremy Corbyn and homeopathy
- David Tredennick (UK) – David Tredinnick: perhaps the worst example of scientific illiteracy in government?
Yes, Trump is not the only, but he is the most influential and might well be the most ignorant one:
- Words of wisdom from Donald Trump on science and related matters
- The ‘Trump-Effect’ on vaccination attitudes
- Trump seems to think that UV might be the answer to the corona-pandemic – could he mean “ultraviolet blood irradiation”?
- Andrew Wakefield, Donald Trump, SCAM, and the anti-vaccination cult
- Unbelievable: ‘THE TRUMP WELLNESS-PLAN’
For this reason alone – and there are many more – I hope he will not soon become merely a dark and scary chapter in the history of the US.
8 Responses to Trump’s Promotion of Dangerous Medical Nonsense
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Then there’s Zack Polanski, current Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, who, while working as a Harley Street hypnotherapist, claimed he could use hypnotherapy to increase the bust size of women. He provided his services for free, of course…
Green Party deputy is former hypnotherapist who said he could help women increase their breast size
Green Party candidate apologises again for misogynistic experiment | South West Londoner
Despite the government’s collusion with Facebook, Instagram etc in censorship, the message is *still* getting through. What does that tell you? It shows that persistent propaganda slowly fades away. You look at what MSM says, and you look at your family, friends or even Joe Biden (after 6 does, he still gets covid) and you get the above results. This should not be surprising, it should be expected, after “safe and effective”, you can’t trust them.
On 12th July Biden said, “…I am running and I am going to stay there!” and then, all of a sudden the conspiracy theory that Biden will be replaced, happens and without any democratic selection process, we get Kamala…
Anyone who believes *anything* that MSM tells them, is nuts.
Alternatively Trump does what he says and that’s why the State tried to take him out: because he cannot be controlled by them, he sticks to his principles (right or wrong).
alternatively, you are bonkers.
I am one of the many tens of millions of the population that have concluded that Uncle Joe is the one that promoted a number of jabs as safe and effective. Jabs that in hindsight have not only proved to be neither safe nor effective but have damaged the health of non-suspecting patients.
Kudos to the people that stayed away from the deadly jabs. No, I’m not anti-vax, I took the JnJ shot.
Dear John,
Quit being a blithering idiot. You are an antivaxxer through and through. Just because you got jabbed a long time ago with a now defunct vaccine doesn’t mean you are a not-antivaxxer. I am a proud antivaxxer and I follow in the footsteps of brave antivaxxer like Trump and RFK Jr. Did you know Trump got the mRNA jab? yet he calls himself an antivaxxer. So quit whining and embrace your identity, ya moron!
Once Fascist Uncle Trump and Big Brother Vance vanquish Aunt Kamala and her minion VP (whoever that might be) this November, I will join them in the Whitehouse as the country’s first vaccine czar who is a chimp. We plan to bring back some of the old hits like out good ole horse paste ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and bleach, in vaccine form. They will be called Horse-vax, Hydro-vax and Bleach-vax. I know some monkeys at the FDA research facilities who are going to get the EUA fast tracked in no time and we will be manufacturing and distributing those jabs to everyone. Even though they are not vaccines we decided to call them that because that is all it takes for dumb vax-lovers to blindly get jabbed without doing any research on the Internet. We will also have some websites up and running saying good things about these new vaccines so highly intelligent antivaxxers like you are convinced as well. Once everyone gets jabbed by these new vaccines the world will be rid of covid and we can breathe free without masks. Only then will we be truly free from Fauci’s whitecoat fascism.
I need some people to test my vaccines therefore I ask you to kindly volunteer for our phase 3 clinic trials. I promise not to put you in a cage like humans do to my brethren who are used in medical research. Instead of braying like a delinquent donkey stranded on top of a hill, make yourself useful and join the clinical trial by visiting my website http://www.horsepastejabs.com.
Yours sincerely & future czar of all jabs,
Honest Ape
I gave up on main steam news years ago. How MSN, CNN and the like are able to continue staying on air baffles me.
As for the way in which the Pandemic was mishandled, it should be a lesson for all of us.
There is plenty of fault to go around. Political Leaders, Scientific Experts, Health Directors, Epidemiologists….there was no shortage of conflicting direction and bogus advice handed out, much of it changing by the hour.
Indeed there is no shortage of serious world challenges ahead and picking a capable President of the United States sure would be a good start.
Given all the other pressing events taking place these days of ongoing wars, predicted financial collapse, immigration gone wild, open borders, etc. let’s hope the “next” pandemic, whatever it is, is handled better.
@David Nette
Well said
Sorry to read about your wife (in your profile above). It is hard enough trying to do-the-right-thing without external pressure of other folks shouting etc.