Study of trust of government handling of COVID-19 in India and USA and disinformation tactics used by the government

Saurab V Gopalan, Mita Mehta. Study of trust of government handling of Covid-19 in India and USA and disinformation tactics used by the government. Cardiometry; Issue 22; May 2022; p. 323-334; DOI: 10.18137/cardiome-try.2022.22.323334; Available from:

India and the USA are two of the most populous democracies in the world. The two countries account for almost 1.5 billion people in its total population mix and account for almost US$17 trillion in terms of GDP. (Nation Master, 2020) Both are major world players and are involved in shaping global influence [1]. The Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19, originated from Wuhan, China – has taken the world by a storm. It brought countries to a standstill and gave a major shock to the world economy, changing traditional norms overnight. The United Nations designated the COVID-19 situation as a pandemic on January 30, bringing a standstill to global business operations and lifestyle activities [2]. The research paper aims to study the two democracies handling the pandemic by studying the population’s perception of the trust in the governments of the two nations in handling the COVID-19 epidemic [3[. The second objective is to study any form of disinformation that the governments may have used during the pandemic and, thirdly, if disinformation affects the trust in their government. The study was conducted by surveying a sample of the population of both countries and noting their response through Google Forms [4]. The responses will indicate the degree to which the public trusts the handling of the coronavirus pandemic by the governments of the two nations, the degree to which disinformation is used, and to identify the effect disinformation has on the overall trust in the government. Note: In this research paper, COVID-19 and the coronavirus both denote the worldwide pandemic caused by the 2019-nCov virus [5].

• 2    Literature review

  • 2.1    Introduction to the coronavirus pandemic This virus is spread through human contact, mostly via direct contact via infected personnel or object, or by exposure to infected droplets [6]. There has also been evidence reported, where possible animal-to-hu-man transmission vectors could also take place. It was largely due to reported links between the wet markets of Wuhan being the ground zero for the Novel Coronavirus, as studied by Lai, which Prof. Roujian Lu further confirmed in his research [7], which linked the Novel Coronavirus to the consumption of bats in the wet markets. Moreover, using homology remodeling, he managed to find a link between the Novel Coronavirus [8].

• 2.2    International spread and the lockdown

  The international spread of the coronavirus can also be attributed to the fact that Wuhan’s International Airport – Tianhe International, is a major Airport in Mainland China. According to its 2018 statistics, the airport catered to over 24,500,356 passengers and actively code shares with several top European and North American airliners, allowing them to layover and continues with major cities worldwide. (Wuhan Airport, 2020). The first infections were identified in 324 | Cardiometry | Issue 22. May 2022

He had 50% reliability to MERS-CoV, also known as the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, and up

Issue 22. May 2022 | Cardiometry | 323

to 79% reliability to SARS-CoV, also known as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as researched by Lu. COVID-19 is a member of the. Conventionally speaking, Alpha coronavirus and beta corona viruses have shown to affect mammalian species [9].

In contrast, gamma coronavirus and delta corona viruses have been shown to infect birds. However, recent studies have shown that the above two varieties can also be transmitted to human beings, as stated by Zhou [10]. Coronavirus has an incubation period of around 7-14 days. The patient develops symptoms, commonly associated with other respiratory viruses, such as shortness of breath, bouts of fever, shortness of breath, and cough. Radiographs taken of the lungs of COVID-19 affected patients showed signs of invasive lesions, as observed by Chan, 2020. Professor Chaolin Huang, one of the first researchers to study the Novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, also mentions that patients tend to develop ARDS or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and pneumonia, requiring immediate Intensive Care [11]. It was also observed that the patients with comorbidities were at the highest risk of becoming fatalities due to COVID-19, as researched by Huang. Co morbidity is defined as the presence of more than one chronic distinct disease/disorder, condition, illness, or health problem, prevalent in a person in an evaluator study by Valderas [12]. Patients with chronic circulatory conditions such as heart diseases and hypertension were at the highest risk of comorbidities due to COVID-19, followed by endocrine diseases – namely diabetes, as studied by Guan [13]. What makes COVID-19, especially dangerous is the spread of the disease even by asymptomatic people (people who are carriers of the COVID-19 virus but do not show signs of its symptoms, as recorded by Bai. Even pre-symptomatic individuals have also shown signs of spreading the virus, tracing and combating the virus a much harder task, as studied by Arons.

China on November 17, 2019, but the WHO declared it a global pandemic only by January 30, 2020 (WHO). This delay in recognizing the threat posed by the virus led to the spread of the virus internationally [14]

Many countries were late in adopting measures in recognizing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Case in point: Singapore and France. Both of these countries received their first coronavirus cases at around 23-24 days from the outbreak; however, their approach to handling was very different. On receiving its first case, Singapore promptly shut all international travel, followed by quarantining measures and strict screening policies adopted in all public gathering spaces, airports, and seaports (Conversation, 2020). France, on the other hand, delayed its response to the virus. It instituted a travel ban only after 36 days of the first reported case [15]. It delayed screening measures for international passengers and other social distancing measures – paving the way for over 40,000 infections as of March 29. (Moatti, 2020). Italy too delayed its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Even though they were more proactive than France in closing down international travel; it did not undertake social distancing measures, and most importantly, public gatherings were still taking place – namely, the Champions Trophy match, which has been attributed as one of the major incidents, which led to the spread of coronavirus in Italy (TOI, 2020) [16]. Similar trends can be observed with Spain, UK, and Belgium during the first coronavirus cases as well – they did not follow social distancing and were late in adopting screening measures. By March 29, the UK, Spain, and Belgium had over 19,000, 80,000, and 10,000 cases, respectively.

Self-quarantine is a term reserved for maintaining a prudent travel restriction for personnel who may have been exposed to the virus or may not show signs of the virus – primarily because they may not be exposed to the virus or the virus may still be in the incubation period. It may not show symptoms, as recorded by Backer [17].

• 2.3    Difference between disinformation and misinformation

• 2.4    History of disinformation and use of disinformation by governments leading up to the current covid-19 pandemic

Before we proceed further, it is important to differentiate between the terms “misinformation” and “disinformation.” Misinformation is used to define wrong or misleading information that has been spread to the masses unintentionally. Misinformation is not intended to mislead intentionally, according to Wayne State.

Disinformation means the action of willfully pub-lishing/sending false information. It is manufactured, so that the information spread appears genuine by mixing the truth with the manufactured lies and/or manipulating the target audience. This tool becomes even more effective when the source of disinformation is through the media or the government. (UNESCO Handbook, 2018) [22].

Disinformation campaigns are not a modern creation. Their existence can be traced back to the sixth century AD. The principal historian of Byzantium, Procopius of Caesarea, used the concept of disinfor- mation to discredit Emperor Justinian of Byzantium. His book “Secret History” helped smear the reputation of emperor Justinian and his wife, as stated by Atwater. The Vatican had also used disinformation in the 15th century on Anti-Semitism and especially about the Lisbon Earthquake in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, citing divine retribution observed by Udias [23]. The French Revolution also witnessed the use of disinformation especially used by the Republicans, to throw out the Bourbon Dynasty by disseminating fake news about Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, as researched by Darnton. During 1948, Chicago Daily Tribune – famous English was so certain of the election results that would occur the next day. They printed and published the newspaper with the main headlines reading “Dewey defeats Truman.” However, Harry Truman went on to win the election. A famous photograph of President Truman holding up the newspaper with the printed newspaper was the country’s news for quite a long time, in an evaluator study by Jones.

One of the reasons governments use disinformation is to control public hysteria. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that public hysteria takes place when there is a lack of information availability. Moreover, media and movies elicit the dangers of a pandemic up to an exaggerated point where deaths and destructions total are perceived, which adds fuel to the fire, as studied by Rochwerg [24]. Governments often love to take control of the media narrative. According to The United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur David Kaye, honest journalists are often targeted by governments, branded as the enemy, and consider their narrative as sinful. He notes that it’s a serious problem experienced all around the world (UNHCR, 2017). Recent research conducted on global press freedom by the Freedom House in 2017, it was established that press autonomy was at the lowest point in almost 13 years, and there were pressures to journalism not only from authoritarian states but also from states that have a democratic set up (Freedom House, 2017).

The reason why disinformation is extremely effective is that it plays with the emotions of the target audience, allows a sense of validation of identity to the recipients, helps simplify the issues that are hard to comprehend, makes the audience feel that they are being presented with the truth and helps create biases (NiemanLab, 2017) [25]. Disinformation is often difficult to counter because false information if repeated extensively can increase its believability. In an exper- iment conducted by Liza Fazio on a group of participants, she observed that on repeated bombarding of the fake information, even the participants’ perception of the truthfulness of the fake information increased, even though they were informed with the fact that the information provided was malicious, as recorded by Fazio.

Due to the above factors, governments use disinformation during times of pandemics, crises, and wars. In the wars, it helps create a narrative for the justification for participation in a conflict. It also helps justify the suffering, devastation, and hardships that can arise out of the conflict, gain support for the conflict and help debunk and delegitimize the opposition claims to the conflict, as recorded by Bar-Tal, 1998. A case in point would be the US’s war on Iraq in 2004, where the US waged war on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq on the pretext of Saddam Hussein allying with Al-Qaeda and had WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction, which later turned out to be false, according to Kaufman, 2004. During World War 1, the Spanish Flu had its origination from France and was rapidly spreading across the battlefields of Europe and found its way into Spain, which was not a belligerent to the conflict. Due to strict censorship by the warring parties, the total extent of the spread of the virus was covered up. In the United States, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Sedition Act 1918, which barred any information about the Spanish Flu from being spread in the United States, which led to major hampering of medical operations and rapid spread of the Flu (EcoHealth, 2020) [26].

Even during COVID-19, governments around the world have also indulged in disinformation to keep the public calm. The Iranian deputy health minister Ali-Reza Raisi on February 10, 2020, had told the state media that there were no cases of COVID-19, even though a 63-year-old woman had died from the illness on the very same day. Moreover, Iran propagated that COVID-19 was an “American Invention,” and Mahan Air continued to operate flights from Tehran to China, despite evidence of the virus originating from China (US State Dept, 2020). The first reports of COVID-19 in Iran were known to the Iranian government in January 2020, but publicly declared the pandemic only in February 2020. (CTC, 2020) [27].

Even Brazil has indulged in disinformation campaigns. Jair Bolsonaro, President of the Brazilian Republic, had routinely chaffed off the recommendation of maintaining social distancing and even fired Luis 326 | Cardiometry | Issue 22. May 2022

Mandetta, his minister of health, when he disagreed with social distancing policy. Moreover, he also advised the use of HCQ, a non-tested drug, as a possible cure for COVID-19, without waiting for any scientific study on the matter, as recorded by Barberia, 2020.

It is also well known that China actively blocked any form of information related to COVID-19 on all its social media handles and also blocked and banned accounts in its popular state-controlled messaging service, We Chat (Citizen Lab, 2020). Russia too actively censors its health professionals from speaking out to the media, as stated by Savitskaya [28].

• 2.5    So why do countries resort

• 2.6    Quick overview: USA – government handling of covid-19 and allegations of disinformation.

• 2.7    Quick overview: India – government handling of covid-19 and allegations of disinformation.

to disinformation and what builds trust in the government?

According to the National Endowment for Democracy, disinformation can have short-term and longterm goals. Short-term goals include distraction from the main issue, blurring the truth, or influencing the target audience to take a pre-determined set action. The long-run goals include shaping up policy and beliefs, helping them to take decisions (Ned, 2018). It also helps build cynicism and social atomization, which can help a government navigate a crisis period (Foreign Policy, 2020). Moreover, misinformation can spread false hopes, fill in data voids, help push the narrative and help deflect blame. (Data Society, 2020)

According to Bouckaert, trust in governments mainly takes place in three levels -macro, meso, and micro level. At the macro level, factor influencing it are functioning of the political institute; at the meso level, the factor involved in managing the social and economic situations and in the micro-level, the impact of government policy on people’s day to day lives are the major factors, as studied by Bouckaert. Moreover, trust in government handling is based on the following factors: Reliability, Responsiveness, Openness and Inclusiveness, Integrity and Fairness (OECD, 2013)

The first case of Coronavirus in the USA was recorded around mid-January 2020 when a woman showed signs of symptoms on her return from China. She was positively diagnosed with COVID-19, which marked the beginning of the spread of COVID-19 in the USA, as observed by Ghinai. The US formally de- clared an emergency on January 31, 2020, and brought about restrictions in International Travel, especially from China. The US Government was criticized for a relatively slow response to the pandemic, with US President Donald J. Trump downplaying the entire incident (Associated Press, 2020) [29]. The United States CDC, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, took the lead in fighting against COVID-19 in the USA. Fauci became the leader and face of the Trump Administration’s Coronavirus Task Force (BBC, 2020). As of August 9, 2020, COVID-19 has affected 5 million people throughout the USA, with an estimated 1,62,400 deaths.

There have been accusations of disinformation in the United States’ handling of the COVID-19 scenario. The President, on March 2020, dismissed and the coronavirus as “just another flu.” This comment was made to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus (Washington Post, 2020). Moreover, the President was also criticized for suggesting Chloroquixone as a remedy for COVID-19 without the backing of any scientific evidence and no approval from the FDA, which led to the death of a man in Phoenix, Arizona, after he saw the remedy suggested by Mr. Trump on Television (KTAR, 2020). In a report by the USA, Today, on May 30, the CDC acknowledged the under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths due to non-availability of testing kits and failure to link certain home deaths to COVID-19. (USA Today, 2020).

Moreover, certain states in the US, like Florida, do not follow federal COVID-19 regulations. Instead [30], the Florida governor has not made wearing masks mandatory and no bans on gatherings (Forbes, 2020). On a CNN poll held in May, 54% of the American population believes that the US Government has done a poor job handling the COVID-19 situation (CNN, 2020).

The first case of COVID-19 was recorded on January 30, 2020, in Kerala, which rose to three cases by February 3, 2020. All the affected patients were students who had returned from the City of Wuhan, China, due to the deadly COVID-19 breakout. (CNBC, 2020). COVID-19 claimed its first victim from India, a 76-year-old individual from Karnataka [31]. He had contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia and returned home when it was detected in India (Hindustan Times,

• 2020 ). By August 15, 2020, more than 2.5 million Indians had been tested for COVID-19, and the total death recorded was more than 49,000 deaths (MOHFW, 2020). The government soon set up the “Corona Task Force,” created on March 18, 2020, by the Prime Minister and consisted of 30 doctors and scientists headed by Dr. VK Paul. This task force undertook some drastic and radical measures such as an All-India Lockdown and took radical steps in controlling the virus, (The Print, 2020). These radical steps were applauded by the WHO and praised India’s response to the pandemic as robust and comprehensive and termed the entire exercise as very aggressive, but noted its necessity to build up necessary health infrastructure and contain the spread, (Indian Express, 2020).

However, allegations of disinformation are also rife within the Indian subcontinent. The state of Delhi was accused of hiding the real COVID-19 fatalities by underreporting the number of deaths. Accusations of falsifying the final numbers were also levied (First Post, 2020). A similar incident was also uncovered in the City of Madurai, where there were inaccuracies in the recorded deaths vs. the actual deaths related to COVID-19 (The Hindu, 2020) [32]. Factual inaccuracies in the recording of Covid related data were also rife, wherein experts have suggested that the government used inaccurate data and false graphs to justify decisions (Huffington Post, 2020). An MLA from Uttar Pradesh had also claimed that Masks are not required to wear masks, as it was all “deceitful marketing.” In a public statement, he also mentions that there is no need for poor people to wear N95 or surgical masks (TOI, 2020).

Hence, even in the world’s two most prolific democracies, disinformation is prevalent even in governance – and is not restricted to a despot or autocratic governments.

• 3    Research methodologies

The research methodology relies on quantitative research. The survey was based on the parameters identified in Subdivision (5) in the literature review section, namely – 5 factors related to trust and 5 factors related to disinformation. Two questions per factor were taken to increase the accuracy of the results. The survey was conducted via Google Forms and was floated via social media apps like Face book, Linked In, WhatsApp, Instagram, and popular chat sites such as Omegle and Reddit. No physical surveys were pos- sible to undertake due to the COVID-19 pandemic and due to geographical limitations.

• 4    Results and discussions

Data from over 200 personnel were taken, 100 from the USA and India. The data was then analyzed through IBM SPSS. Table 1 shows the reliability statistics. In the USA: Data reliability was checked via the Cronbach alpha’s test.

Table 1

Reliability statistics (USA)

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s alpha	No. of Items
0.744	22

Conclusion: Cronbach’s alpha has an alpha value of 0.744, meaning that the data collected is reliable.

Table 2 shows the KMO test has displayed a value of 0.914, which is much higher than the acceptability range of 0.5 and above, indicating that the data collect- ed is “superb” for factor analysis. Moreover, the significance in Bartlett’s Test shows that it is 0.000, indicating the significance of rejecting the null hypothesis.

Table 2

Bartlett’s test (USA)

KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.		0.914
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity	Approx. Chi-Square	2574.968
	df	231
	Sig.	0.000

Table 3 shows the communalities tab indicates which values are to be taken for further factor analysis (factors >0.5). In this case, 19 of the 20 factors are taken for further analysis.

Table 4 shows the total variance table further explains that all the above 22 factors are highly dependent on two components (trust and disinformation).

Table 3

Communalities (USA)

Communalities
	Initial	Extraction
Did the government give regular updates and information regarding the infection?	1.000	0.570
Was the information provided by the government accurate?	1.000	0.742
Was the government transparent in publishing the latest development?	1.000	0.838
How effective was the lockdown procedure of the government?	1.000	0.802
Do you have faith in the decisions taken by the country’s Coonav?	1.000	0.765
Do you feel the government was responsive in handling new challenges?	1.000	0.726
Did the government undertake adequate COVID-19 testing and mapping?	1.000	0.802
Were PPE and protective gear issued to Frontline workers during the pandemic?	1.000	0.782
Were Public Health infrastructure facilities available during the pandemic?	1.000	0.742
Level of support provided by the government in terms of your bus facilities?	1.000	0.787
Did the government handle the economy relatively well, considering?	1.000	0.812
Did your government at any time declare the COVID-19 pandemic?	1.000	0.783
Did the government float inaccurate data in regards to the spread?	1.000	0.654
Did the government ever falsify/manipulated the number of deaths?	1.000	0.738
Did the government at any time little does not make it mandatory?	1.000	0.793
Did the government blame any particular ethnic group?	1.000	0.690
Did the government ever recommend any alternate drug cure?	1.000	0.798
Did the government bring about issues news that was targeted?	1.000	0.819
Do you believe that the government misrepresented facts during a lockdown?	1.000	0.806
Did the government spread false information false assurance?	1.000	0.855
Did the government make false statements regarding particulars?	1.000	0.836
How much trust do you have in the effectiveness of the government?	1.000	0.469

Table 4

Variance (USA)

Component	Eigenvalues				Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings			Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %
1	13.103	59.559	59.559	13.103	59.559	59.559	8.496	38.617	38.617
2	3.507	15.939	75.498	3.507	15.939	75.498	8.114	36.881	75.498
3	0.806	3.664	79.162
4	0.659	2.997	82.159
5	0.587	2.670	84.829
6	0.458	2.080	86.908
7	0.373	1.694	88.603
8	0.358	1.626	90.229
9	0.322	1.466	91.694
10	0.288	1.309	93.004
11	0.222	1.009	94.013
12	0.217	0.985	94.998
13	0.196	0.892	95.890
14	0.162	0.737	96.627
15	0.154	0.701	97.329
16	0.125	0.570	97.899
17	0.112	0.509	98.407
18	0.101	0.458	98.865
19	0.088	0.402	99.267
20	0.066	0.302	99.569
21	0.051	0.232	99.801
22	0.044	0.199	100.000

Table 5 shows the rotated component matrix shows the major factors that directly affect the two components. In the Case of Trust – Stringent Mapping, Transparency, Economic handling, and Effective lock- down were the main factors. In Misinformation, Belittling the pandemic, Targeted Info, False Info, and Unapproved drug alternate cures were the main factors.

• 4.1    Indian analysis

Table 5

Component matrix (USA)

Component Matrix
	Component
	1	2
Do you believe that the government misrepresented facts during a lockdown?	-0.858
Did the government make false statements regarding particular?	-0.849
Did the government spread false information false assurance structure?	-0.843
Were PPE and protective gear issued to Frontline workers?	0.840
Was the government transparent in publishing the latest developments?	0.837
Level of support provided by the government in terms of your bus facilities	0.833
Did the government handle the economy relatively well, considering the lockdown?	0.830
How effective was the lockdown procedure of the government?	0.825
Do you have faith in the decisions taken by the country’s government?	0.793

Component Matrix
	Component
	1	2
Do you feel the government was responsive in handling new challenges?	0.792
Were Public Health infrastructure facilities available during the pandemic?	0.786
Did the Coonav undertake adequate COVID-19 testing and mapping?	0.784
Did the government bring about issues news that was targeted?	-0.784
Did the government ever recommend any alternate drug cure?	-0.774
Was the information provided by the government accurate?	0.771
Did your government at any time declare the COVID-19 pandemic?	-0.765
Did the government ever falsify manipulated the number of deaths?	-0.736
Did the government at any time be little not made it mandatory?	-0.732	0.507
Did the government blame any particular ethnic group?	-0.707
Did the government give regular updates and information regarding the infection?	0.706
Did the government float inaccurate data in regards to the spread?	-0.664
How much trust do you have in the effectiveness of the government?		0.633

Table 6 shows Cronbach’s alpha has an alpha value of 0.745, meaning that the data collected is reliable. Table 6

Reliability statistics (INDIA)

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha	N of Items
0.745	22

Table 7

Bartlett’s test (INDIA)

KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.		0.925
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity	Approx. Chi-Square	2686.509
	df	231
	Sig.	0.000

Table 7 shows the KMO test has displayed a value of 0.925, which is much higher than the acceptability range of 0.5 and above, indicating that the data collected is “superb” for factor analysis. Moreover, the significance in Bartlett’s Test shows that it is 0.000, indicating the significance of rejecting the null hypothesis.

Table 8 shows the communalities tab indicates which values are to be taken for further factor analysis (factors >0.5). In this case, 18 of the 20 factors are taken for further analysis.

Table 8

Communalities (INDIA)

Table 9 shows the variance of India. Analysis: In the Indian populace, the main factors that affected trust were: Economic conditions, decisions taken, support by the govt. and public health infrastructure. In disinformation, factors such as Alternate Cure, False Statements, and Belittling the Covid -19 Pandemic are the major factors. Table 10 shows the component of matrix.

Table 11 shows the percentage aggregate in USA and India.

Communalities
	Initial	Extraction
Did the government give regular updates and information regarding the infection?	1.000	0.557
Was the information provided by the government accurate?	1.000	0.724
Was the government transparent in publishing the latest development?	1.000	0.763
How effective was the lockdown procedure of the government?	1.000	0.464
Do you have faith in the decisions taken by the country’s Coonav?	1.000	0.672
Do you feel the government was responsive in handling new challenges?	1.000	0.653
Did the government undertake adequate COVID-19 testing and mapping?	1.000	0.496
Were PPE and protective gear issued to Frontline workers during the pandemic?	1.000	0.569

Communalities

	Initial	Extraction
Were Public Health infrastructure facilities available during the pandemic?	1.000	0.616
Level of support provided by the government in terms of your bus facilities?	1.000	0.627
Did the government handle the economy relatively well, considering?	1.000	0.620
Did your government at any time declare the COVID-19 pandemic?	1.000	0.578
Did the government float inaccurate data in regards to the spread?	1.000	0.648
Did the government ever falsify/manipulated the number of deaths?	1.000	0.700
Did the government at any time little does not make it mandatory?	1.000	0.564
Did the government blame any particular ethnic group?	1.000	0.655
Did the government ever recommend any alternate drug cure?	1.000	0.686
Did the government bring about issues news that was targeted?	1.000	0.645
Do you believe that the government misrepresented facts during a lockdown?	1.000	0.670
Did the government spread false information false assurance?	1.000	0.644
Did the government make false statements regarding particulars?	1.000	0.748
How much trust do you have in the effectiveness of the government?	1.000	0.515

Table 9

Variance (INDIA)

Component	Initial Eigenvalues				Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings			Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %
1	9.119	41.450	41.450	9.119	41.450	41.450	6.470	29.411	29.411
2	3.603	16.377	57.826	3.603	16.377	57.826	5.225	23.749	53.160
3	1.092	4.963	62.790	1.092	4.963	62.790	2.119	9.630	62.790
4	0.902	4.099	66.889
5	0.808	3.673	70.562
6	0.714	3.247	73.809
7	0.605	2.752	76.561
8	0.575	2.613	79.173
9	0.545	2.479	81.653
10	0.461	2.094	83.746
11	0.407	1.848	85.594
12	0.387	1.760	87.354
13	0.386	1.753	89.107
14	0.349	1.587	90.694
15	0.340	1.547	92.241
16	0.329	1.493	93.735
17	0.274	1.244	94.979
18	0.266	1.211	96.190
19	0.249	1.132	97.322
20	0.219	0.997	98.319
21	0.189	0.861	99.180
22	0.180	0.820	100.000

Table 10

Component Matrix (INDIA)

	Component
	1	2	3
Do you believe that the government misrepresented facts during a lockdown?	-0.739
Was the information provided by the government accurate?	0.739
Do you have faith in the decisions taken by the country’s Coonav?	0.738
Did the government blame any particular ethnic group?	-0.717
Do you feel the government was responsive in handling new challenges?	0.715
Did the government spread false information false assurances?	-0.706
Did the government give regular updates and information regarding the infection?	0.700
Did the government make false statements regarding particulars?	-0.698
Were Public Health infrastructure facilities available during the lockdown?	0.680
Did the government ever falsify/manipulated the number of deaths?	-0.680
Was the government transparent in publishing the latest development?	0.679
Did the government bring about issues news that was targeted?	-0.665
How effective was the lockdown procedure of the government?	0.656
How much trust do you have in the effectiveness of the government?	0.638
Were PPE and protective gear issued to Frontline workers during the lockdown?	0.634
Did the government handle the economy relatively well, considering the lockdown?	0.624
Did the government undertake adequate COVID-19 testing and mapping?
Level of support provided by the government in terms of your bus?
Did the government float inaccurate data in regards to the spread of the infection?
Did the government ever recommend any alternate drug cure?		0.614
Did your government at any time declare the COVID-19 pandemic as a national emergency?		0.603
Did the government at any time be little or not made it mandatory?

Table 11

Percentage aggregate

Percent Aggregate (USA)			Percent Aggregate (India)
Question	Percentage		Question	Percentage
1	59.2		1	78.06122449
2	61.8		2	67.14285714
3	54.4		3	62.55102041
4	53.2		4	62.75510204
5	54		5	68.67346939
6	56.4		6	69.48979592
7	56		7	61.83673469
8	58.4		8	66.93877551
9	62		9	65.30612245
10	60		10	64.28571429
11	52.6		11	58.7755102
12	71.2		12	43.36734694
13	71.6		13	58.26530612
14	67		14	60.20408163
15	70.2		15	45.6122449
16	72.4		16	56.12244898
17	70.8		17	45.20408163
18	72		18	58.46938776
19	74		19	60.51020408
20	68.4		20	51.32653061
21	68		21	49.18367347
22	46.2		22	64.89795918

• 4.2    Final analysis

On aggregating the data, we found that:

• 1.    In the sample Population of the USA, it was found that: 2. 46.2% had trust in the government handling of COVID-19

• 3.    70.56% of respondents believed the government used that disinformation.

• 4.    In India, however,

• 5.    64.89% had trust in the government handling of COVID-19 whereas,

• 6.    52.82% believed that the government used disinformation tactics.

5 Conclusions

The study has helped conclude that:

• 1.    The people of the USA had lesser trust in their government than the people of India.

• 2.    Both countries used disinformation during the COVID-19 Crisis. However, the USA has used significantly (70.56%) more disinformation tactics than in India (52.82%)

• 3.    An indirect variation link was found between trust and disinformation. Higher the trust, lowers the disinformation, and vice versa.

• 4.    Did the government undertake adequate COVID-19 testing and mapping?

• 5.    Did the government give regular updates and information regarding the infection?

The survey was conducted via Google Forms and was floated via social media apps like Face book, Linked In, WhatsApp, Instagram, and popular chat sites such as Omegle and Reddit. No physical surveys were possible to undertake due to the COVID-19 pandemic and due to geographical limitations. Data from over 200 personnel were taken, 100 from the USA and India. The data was then analyzed through IBM SPSS.

• 6    Limitation and future research

The sampling size of the survey could be vastly improved. Furthermore, the research does not identify the respondents in terms of which states they belong to and does not run comprehensive quantitative research on the local level of governance. The research could be further expanded by collecting the ethnicity and race of the respondents and can also do further research on the topic by segregating the respondents in terms of linguistics and median income. For future research, political leanings can also be considered, which can open up other avenues.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Author contributions

The authors read the ICMJE criteria for authorship and approved the final manuscript.