father, Joe Biden, then the U.S. vice-president. Joe Biden has been accused of participating in corrupt activities involving Ukraine as well as influence-peddling to serve his son's career. Donald Trump and some of his conservative supporters pointed to that conspiracy theory in the hopes of derailing Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. COVID-19 misinformation: After the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, false information regarding the virus's place of origin, treatment, diagnosis, etc. has been widely spread through social media, news outlets, and political biases. That caused an "infodemic," as dubbed by the World Health Organization. The numerous false claims regarding the treatment of the virus have caused harm on various fronts in the fight to subdue it. Deep state: The term "deep state" refers to the belief that hidden figures within U.S. power structures such as the CIA and the FBI control US policy instead of the nation's elected officials. Death panel: First coined by former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, "death panel" refers to the politically charged theory that government healthcare will lead to government control and ultimately result in panels of politicians and doctors to decide the fates of America's elderly, disabled, and physically vulnerable. No change or implementation of policy then or since has factually proved any such claims to be true. False flags: The term "false flag" originated with pirate ships flying literal false flags with the colours of recognized nations to convince merchant ships into thinking that they were safe in interacting with them. Since then, the term has been adopted to describe an operation that is carried out by one nation or people and then attributed to another to deflect or hide blame. Documented false flag operations have been carried out by numerous nations in different eras of war. While some such instances have proved to be real, some attribute certain occurrences to the U.S. government under the guise of a false flag operation; an example is 9/11 conspiracy theories. FEMA camps conspiracy theory: The belief that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing concentration camps around the United States to hold its citizens once martial law is declared. Such ideas first emerged in a 1982 newsletter sponsored by a far-right group that believed that the most patriotic citizens are most at risk to be imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. Conspiracy theories involving FEMA still persist in chatrooms and social media