Disinformation About Dead Canadian Doctors Keeps Spreading

Back in October of last year, I posted about Druthers, a right-wing, conspiracy-laden "newspaper" that I received in the mail. The lead article suggested that a large number of Canadian doctors have died as a result of getting the COVID-19 vaccine. This is, of course, not true. 

Unfortunately, this conspiracy theory continues to spread. Last week I came across a long Twitter thread by Ashleigh Stewart, a Toronto journalist, who looked into the story in much more detail. Here's a bit from a couple of the early tweets in the thread.

A big conspiracy theory says the Covid vaccine could have killed 80+ Canadian doctors

I spent months investigating & speaking with the doctor's families. Most died from heart attacks, cancer or suicide

But it won't go away. And those behind it are Canadian doctors themselves.

A November iteration of the Canadian doctor conspiracy theory features 80 photographs & names. They're all real people. But none that I could find died from the Covid-19 vaccine

But many people believe it. And now the vaccine abuse is being directed at grieving families.

Of the 48 doctors I could determine the cause of death of: 10 died from cancer, 3 in car accidents, 1 while climbing K2, 1 drowned, 5 had heart attacks & 6 died by suicide. Others battled ongoing/ abrupt illnesses or the family preferred not to say. 1 was not even vaccinated."

The Twitter thread goes on to look at the source of the conspiracy theory and the effects it's having on the families of those doctors mentioned in the article. 

Global News has since published her more detailed story about it: "Kraken, Elon Musk and dead Canadian doctors: Disinformation surges 3 years into the pandemic". 

The article looks at the doctors who originated and continue to promote the theory (I'm boggled that anyone with medical training could do this, but there we have it), the response of the country's governing medical bodies and provincial and federal governments (pretty useless), and its continuing spread, especially after Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. 

After welcoming back a slew of people previously barred from Twitter for spreading COVID-19 disinformation under Musk’s new leadership, the platform went even further on Nov. 23 – quietly dismantling its policy against COVID-19 misinformation.

But disinformation didn’t quietly creep back – it exploded.

After the online release of misinformation documentary Died Suddenly on Nov. 21, the phrase “Died Suddenly” trended on Twitter for days. That helped it reach more than 10 million views on alternative video website Rumble in a little over a week.

Disinformation is now being shared by huge accounts, including those verified with Twitter Blue.

It's scary and upsetting reading. God help us if we get hit with a pandemic disease that has a death rate a couple of orders of magnitude higher than COVID-19 (H5N1 or MERS, for example). The lack of social cohesion demonstrated in this relatively mild pandemic will be our doom. (Historically, pandemics have had much higher death rates).