Mohammed A. Mostajo-Radji2026-03-222026-03-22202010.31235/osf.io/u9ehfhttps://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/u9ehfhttps://andeanlibrary.org/handle/123456789/83535Citaciones: 8The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the economic and political landscape of the world (Blofield et al., 2020; Greer et al., 2020). Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been particularly vulnerable to the effects of the disease (Breevoort et al., 2020; Dahab et al., 2020; Elhadi, et al., 2020; Loayza and Pennings, 2020). Yet, LMIC regions have different approaches to disease response, control and monitoring. For instance, while Africa centralizes these roles in the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) (Wadvalla, 2020), Latin American countries lack a common health administration, making them more susceptible to complications due to poverty, comorbidity and political dynamics (Pablos-Mendez et al., 2020).Traditional and social media have been important to disseminate information related to disease containment and treatment (Basch et al, 2020; Hopman et al., 2020). Yet, these tools have also served to spread misinformation, conspiracy theories and “miracle cures” for COVID-19 (Malinverni and Brigagão 2020; Moreno-Castro, et al., 2020; Oliveira et al., 2020; Pereira et al., 2020). In Latin America, there are several instances in which media trends have shaped policy and resulted in dangerous interventions to fight the pandemic (Oliveira et al., 2020). These have included the administration of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin (Mega, 2020), as well as the use of untested convalescent plasma as therapy for COVID-19 (Ferreira and Mostajo-Radji, 2020).While the world was horrified by President Donald Trump’s suggestion of drinking household disinfectants to prevent COVID-19, less has been mentioned about the extensive use of chlorine dioxide as treatment in Latin America. Chlorine dioxide is a disinfectant commonly used to clean medical equipment and treat residual waters (Smith et al., 2001). At high concentrations and non-physiological pH, chlorine dioxide effectively inhibits microbial and viral activity (Hauchman et al., 1986; Zoffoli et al., 2005). Exposure to high doses of chlorine dioxide has been shown to cause thyroid suppression, DNA damage and neurotoxicity in several animal models (Abdel-Rahman et al., 1984; Bercz et al., 1982; Harrington et al., 1986; Orme et al., 1985; Toth et al, 1990). It is therefore understood that chlorine dioxide is not safe for human consumption. At the global scale, the dissemination of pseudoscience and post-truth phenomena is often associated with income inequalities (Rijs and Fenter, 2020). Interestingly, however, while Latin American countries often have similar levels of inequality, the use of chlorine dioxide as COVID-19 treatment varied significantly across countries (Table 1). In this opinion article, I use chlorine dioxide consumption to further dissect the contribution of additional variables to pseudoscience dissemination, including scientific literacy and the democratic state of internal politics.enMisinformationPandemicLatin AmericansPolitical scienceCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)PseudosciencePoliticsDevelopment economicsMedicinepreprint