On March 1 this year, a Brooklyn bar owner named Joe Joyce set sail for Spain on a cruise ship with his wife, Jane.

At that time, the 74-year-old had no way of knowing he was heading into one of Europe's biggest coronavirus hotspots aboard one of the most dangerous modes of transport for contracting the virus.

There had been extensive coverage with clear warnings across most of the US mainstream media about the threat posed by the coronavirus, highlighted by Italy's lockdowns on February 23.

The problem was, Joe didn't get the message.

"He watched Fox [News], and believed it was under control," his daughter Kristen told the New York Times this week.

On April 9, Joe died from COVID-19.

Covering coronavirus through a 'lens of conspiracy'

Fox News is America's biggest cable news network.

Its annual revenue is more than $US2.7 billion ($4 billion) and its primetime audience is more than 2 million — on both fronts, that's more than the other news networks combined.

Throughout February, and well into March, almost every commentator in the Fox News stable had either ignored coronavirus or seriously downplayed it.

Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has a close relationship with Donald Trump, initially called coronavirus a "hoax". ( Reuters: Carlos Barria )

As late as March 9, opinion host Sean Hannity, who fronts the most-watched cable news show on American television, was using the word "hoax" to describe it.

"I mean, they're scaring the living hell out of people. And I see it again as like, 'oh, let's bludgeon [US President Donald] Trump with this new hoax'," he told his millions of viewers.

Hannity wasn't alone.

Almost every anchor on the channel aped the President as he talked down the threat well into March.

There was one exception.

In early February, Tucker Carlson, the network's second biggest star, started telling viewers about a dangerous new virus from China.

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Parker Molloy, a researcher with the left-leaning Media Matters For America, says Carlson covered the issue "through the lens of conspiracy theory" by suggesting it may have come from a Chinese laboratory.

Regardless, the host didn't mince his warnings.

Eventually, he would even play a role in convincing Mr Trump to take it seriously.

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Has Fox News cost lives?

A working paper released this week, titled Misinformation During a Pandemic, compared the coverage of the coronavirus by Hannity and Carlson in February and March.

The researchers from the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute for Economics claim to have shown people watching Hannity's show were more likely to get sick and die from the coronavirus.

"Greater exposure to Hannity relative to Tucker Carlson Tonight leads to a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths," the researchers wrote.

The study pointed to "approximately 30 per cent more COVID-19 cases" among those who tuned in to Hannity and "21 per cent more COVID-19 deaths".

Furthermore, the researchers claimed to have shown that after Hannity started taking the threat more seriously in mid-March, the disparity with Carlson viewers narrowed.

Fox News may have played a role in some Americans' views on social distancing. ( Reuters: Leah Millis )

Significantly, the study is only a working paper.

It hasn't been peer reviewed or published by a respected scientific journal.

Still, it serves to remind us all that words matter.

Host Trish Regan became the network's 'scapegoat'

In hindsight, very few US media outlets gave the story the gravitas it required, until it was too late.

This week, officials in Santa Clara County, California, confirmed the first known death from COVID-19 actually happened on February 6, a full 20 days earlier than previously reported.

They also believe the woman who died contracted the virus through the community, which suggests it was silently spreading in the United States as early as the beginning of January.

That renders praise for Donald Trump's China travel ban and argument about the timing of the World Health Organization's warnings somewhat meaningless.

The virus was already there.

Still, taking their lead from the President, Fox News was much later to the party than almost every other mainstream media outlet.

So far, only one host has been punished for downplaying it.

Fox Business host Trish Regan lost her timeslot, then her job, after accusing liberals of trying to "demonise and destroy the President" in front of a graphic reading, "Coronavirus Impeachment Scam".

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Molloy, the researcher from Media Matters for America, said Regan was a "scapegoat," especially since Hannity was toeing a similar line around the same time.

"As Fox was facing credibility issues on some of these things, I think they needed someone to take the fall for them," Molloy said.

Pseudo scientists serve as frequent Fox News guests

Trump has Anthony Fauci, one of the world's foremost infectious disease experts, advising him.

But on Fox News, Dr Fauci's important message is often diluted by faux experts offering a counter view.

"You've got Dr Fauci saying one thing and then you might have Dr Phil show up after that," says Molloy.

If only that statement was a metaphor.

Last week, Dr Phil, the famous talk show shrink was invited on Fox to offer his best medical feel-pinions.

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"Forty-five-thousand people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, but we don't shut the country down for that. But yet we're doing it for this?"

Modelling suggests leaving the country open would have cost 2.2 million lives.

Several other resident experts are regularly wheeled out to counter the very serious message coming out of the White House coronavirus task force.

Last week, doctor Mehmet Oz claimed he "misspoke" on the channel when he suggested it might be an "appetising opportunity" to reopen schools, suggesting it "may only cost us 2 or 3 per cent in terms of total mortality".

That's 10 million people.

Protesters given the green light by some Fox hosts

Protesters, encouraged by the rhetoric from Fox News about reopening the economy, are putting pressure on state officials to lift social distancing measures. ( AP: John Raoux )

Many Australians have been shocked this past week by images of protesters, armed to the teeth, flouting stay-at-home orders to demand an end to the lockdowns.

Some on Fox News have egged them on.

"A lot of people are very proud of you," said host Jeanine Pirro during an interview with one of the organisers.

"Peaceful protests, civil liberties — it's what we're all about. Keep going."

An article on Fox's website went even further, embedding a tweet that contained contact information for anyone who wished to join a rally in Wisconsin.

Fox's role in coronavirus may feature in the halls of history

When it comes to lively debate, fierce opinion and audience pulling power, Fox News remains the undisputed champion of cable television.

But a pandemic doesn't care about your opinions, no matter how strongly you put them.

Historians will long study the reasons countries like Australia have fared so well (so far) through this calamity, while America has fallen so hard.

They'd do well to investigate Fox News and other agents of misinformation, examining how they may have played a role.

Following Mr Trump's line unchallenged comes with a cost, and Fox News viewers may be footing the bill.