Half(!) of Americans say it’s hard to separate coronavirus facts from fiction (CNN)

The coronavirus pandemic highlights any number of challenges facing the country — from the strain it’s put on our health care system to the delicate state of our economy to the perils of living in a connected, global community.

One of the less publicized but hugely important challenges the coronavirus pandemic has surfaced (or resurfaced) is the vast misinformation and disinformation problem the country faces.

In a new Pew poll, 50% of Americans said they find it “difficult” to distinguish what’s true from what isn’t when it comes to the pandemic, while 49% describe that process as “easy.”

And two-thirds of respondents (64%) say that they have seen “some” (48%) or “a lot” (15%) of news about the coronavirus that seems to them to be made up. Almost 4 in 10 (38%) admit to hearing something about the virus that they believed to be true only to later learn it was false.

There’s no doubt that some of this confusion stems from the fact that Covid-19 is an entirely new disease, which explains not only why it is such a major health threat but also why information and facts about it seem fungible…

To read the entire article from CNN, click https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/coronavirus-conspiracy-facts-pew-poll/index.html

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