Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox: ‘Misinformation Is Killing People’

Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, agreed that it isn’t “hyperbole” to say that “misinformation is killing people,” during an interview with local newspaper Deseret News in which he also condemned “hateful rhetoric” and expressed concern about a growing lack of faith in America’s institutions.

Via Deseret News:

So would he go so far as to say current politics and misinformation are literally killing people?

“Yeah. ” Cox answered. “I mean, that’s verifiably accurate. I don’t think that’s hyperbole. There’s proof that there are certain individuals out there … who believe things that I know aren’t true, that I can verify aren’t true and because of that they made a decision that then ultimately left them unprotected from this terrible virus.”

So, yes, Cox said, “misinformation is definitely killing people. And that’s sad.”

Cox’s comments echo President Joe Biden’s earlier this year, when he complained that social media disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, in particular on Facebook, was “literally killing people.” Biden later clarified his comment to place the blame on prominent users on Facebook, not on the company itself.

Gov. Cox also lamented Americans’ loss of faith in its “bedrock institutions,” drawing a link between the loss of trust and the rise of so-called disinformation.

That includes “media institutions, our institutions of higher learning, our family institutions, our church institutions,” Cox said. “All the needles are kind of pointed down when it comes to those things that help define us. … And if we kind of lose faith in those institutions and lose faith in each other, then man becomes brutish and selfish and very tribal in a really concerning way.”

Public surveys support the Utah governor’s assertion that Americans have lost faith in their institutions. Public surveys consistently show Americans’ faith in key political and social institutions is hovering at or near record lows.