Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. We've made it to Wednesday. It's July 8th. I'm Nailaboodoo.

And here's how we're making you smarter this morning. The presidential election could upend big pipeline plans and new

ways your bosses are watching you. But first, fighting the coronavirus

infodemic is today's one big thing.

Growing numb to the idea of fake news isn't an option during the pandemic because

misinformation can kill you.

But social media and a deeply partisan divide are fueling what the World Health Organization

is now calling an infodemic that is just as urgent as the virus itself.

Brian Walsh is our future correspondent.

Just in the same way a pandemic is meant to represent a virus that spreads all around the

world. An infodemic is information moving in the same way,

often in the same kind of viral multiplying pattern.

And in this case, we're talking about misinformation,

honest mistakes, errors about the virus how to respond to it.

Also disinformation, actual often coordinated campaigns, sometimes by nation states, to create

doubt around the virus itself, to create doubt around how we should respond to it and

it's been pretty scary to watch really as fast as the virus has been spreading that

infodemic is spreading just as quickly.

Brian you say the infodemic can be deadly.

How so?

I'm very worried that when a vaccine comes out

that a good chunk of the US population

...