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Published August 9, 2023 | Version 1
Preprint Open

COVID-19 misinformation against Denmark early 2022: A focused review

Description

This paper reviews the data underlying Denmark’s decision to remove infection-control policies on February 1, 2022, during the SARS-CoV-2 omicron wave, and claims about this policy that led to the Danish Statens Serum Institute (SSI) directly engaging several high-profile Twitter accounts, which was unprecedented in Danish history. In the analyses, we categorize four main categories of misinformation that SSI debunked: 1) Misrepresentations of epidemiological data, 2) misleading claims of mass psychiatric disease, 3) misleading claims of pediatric adverse events, and 4) conspiracy theories in relation to eugenics and data manipulation.

We conclude that Denmark’s decision to open was based on some of the most complete testing, sequencing and register data and transparent public discussion of essential features of the data, such as incidental omicron hospitalisations and deaths. We conclude that some of the misinformation was associated with organized groups using many of the same methods as the antivaccine movements (falsehoods, data misuse, conspiracy theories and distrust in authorities) to distort data used by authorities for decision-making.

We recommend that further analysis is carried out to understand better the motivations and impact of these groups on the public debate during the pandemic, also in other countries.

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