Lies infected America in 2020. The very worst were not just damaging, but deadly. PolitiFact’s 2020 Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial. bit.ly/lieoftheyear20… 
COVID-19 has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States. And yet, the threat of it has been downplayed at multiple levels since the very beginning of the pandemic.
We use the word “lie” once a year, when we consider a year’s worth of fact-checking and pick a falsehood that proves to be of real consequence. politifact.com/article/2018/d…
President Donald Trump fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. bit.ly/3bhM8dI
But the infodemic was not the work of a single person. All year long, we were bombarded with conspiracy theories and fake science intended to minimize the real threat of COVID-19. bit.ly/lieoftheyear20…
Influential TV and radio opinion hosts told millions of viewers that social distancing was a joke and that states had all of the personal protective equipment they needed (when they didn’t). politifact.com/factchecks/202…
Claims that masks didn’t work, or claims that COVID-19 was no worse than the flu, were not rooted in reality. politifact.com/factchecks/202…
Online skeptics made bogus accusations that hospitals padded their coronavirus case numbers to generate bonus payments. politifact.com/factchecks/202…
A movement on Twitter questioned the disproportionately high U.S. COVID-19 death toll.
The most viral disinformation of the pandemic was styled to look like it had the blessing of people Americans trust: scientists and doctors. politifact.com/article/2020/m…
The vaccine disinformation campaign started in the spring but is still underway. bit.ly/34g9Q98
Meanwhile, the future course of the coronavirus in the U.S. depends on whether Americans take public health guidance to heart. @IHME_UW projected that, without mask mandates or a rapid vaccine rollout, the death toll could rise to more than 500,000 by April 2021.
Your turn to pick: PolitiFact has selected lies about the coronavirus as our Lie of the Year. We made our case, but we’re also asking readers to weigh in. Vote now >> bit.ly/LOTYReaderPoll
Publishing Lie of the Year doesn’t mean 2020 simply ends. A fraught presidential transition, raging coronavirus cases and the largest vaccine rollout in history continue to keep us fact-checkers quite busy. See a claim that needs checking? Email truthometer@politifact.com
This poll has closed. Thanks to to all who voted! Look for our write-up of results soon.
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