On the spread of disinformation, and no information

A sign outside a high school in Louisville, where demonstrators were protesting against a coronavirus vaccine clinic last month. (Amira Karaoud/Reuters)

From vaccines to masks to a visit from the Kentucky Governor last week, my rural newspaper — The Anderson News — uses its platform and its Facebook page to spread disinformation or no information at all.

My story for today’s Washington Post.

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The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, I arrive too early to a spacious, high-ceilinged, bright-lighted conference room connected to our police department to await the arrival of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. A police lieutenant I know well stands way over by the big windows talking with a fellow officer on the governor’s advance detail, while Bart Powell, another early-bird and our county’s director of public safety, sits a good ten feet from me. We are not masked. We are all vaccinated. I ask Powell how things are going. He raises both brows and says he is worried about what’s coming next.

What’s coming next is omicron, the latest coronavirus variant.

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