Right-wing media outlets and pundits spent weeks dangerously minimizing the severity of the coronavirus and claiming that accurate reports on the outbreak were part of a liberal conspiracy to defame President Donald Trump. Right-wing outlets and personalities diminishing the coronavirus could lead to more illness and more deaths if the public ignores warnings from health officials or credible news reports. ― coronavirus in an attempt to destroy the president,” Fox Business host Trish Regan said in a conspiracy-laden diatribe earlier this week. Elsewhere in the right-wing media ecosystem, radio host Rush Limbaugh falsely stated that “the coronavirus is the common cold.” (Health officials believe it is actually around 10 times deadlier than the flu.) At the extreme edge of right-wing media, hosts on conspiracy site InfoWars are peddling fake coronavirus cures to profit off disaster.

Source: Huffington Post March 13, 2020 18:14 UTC