As the pandemic raged in 2020, the White House Coronavirus Task Force scheduled regular press conferences, some on the White House and others on the CDC or National Institutes of Health.When the briefings took place on the White House, where then-President Donald Trump was a frequent visitor, reporters often asked questions on politics somewhat than health, recalls Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general and was a member of the duty force.”People complained when Trump didn't show up, but when he was there, we could never talk about COVID,” said Adams, now executive director for health equity at Purdue University.Politicization and polarization – together with dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 – have been dubbed “the virus within.” This spread of misinformation and disinformation – a world phenomenon – continues to hamper efforts to regulate the pandemic and mobilize the general public behind the health and safety measures really useful by scientists.When health experts tried to debate the rationale for the protection measures, the story about COVID-19 often drifted into simply blaming politics, Adams said. “That literally brought the discussion to a halt,” he told Medscape Medical News. “Every recommended public health step has been challenged [by some group] every step of the way,” said Dr. Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, professor of health communication at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “There have always been areas where public health recommendations have been questioned. But nothing that I am aware of has been questioned to the extent that we are seeing today.”Yet, as of January 19, over 850,000 people have died from COVID in the United States and over 68 million cases have been reported, so efforts to contain “the virus within” proceed because a lot stays at stake.Politics determines behavior
In one of many similar studies early in the pandemic, researchers at the Brookings Institution surveyed nearly 50,000 adults and found that party affiliation had a stronger influence on individual attitudes and behavior toward Covid-19 than local infection rates or demographic data.
The nonprofit political organization reported the study's findings with the headline: “Politics is ruining America's pandemic response.”
Another poll from March 2020 found that people who identified themselves as liberal perceived the pandemic as a greater risk than conservatives, had less confidence in politicians' ability to handle the pandemic, and trusted medical experts more.
The polarization is not only evident in attitudes, but also in actual behavior, they concluded. Liberals consistently reported that they practiced significantly more protective measures, such as wearing face masks.
The problem of fake news
Researchers from the United States and Italy examined how various factors, including levels of fear, affected the tendency of Italians and Americans to believe false COVID-19 news. The surveys of 560 people were conducted in April 2020, at an early peak of the pandemic, and published in Limits of communication/health communication.
“We have identified the time when people feel essentially the most fear. Every emotion now we have in life affects our ability to think, whether [we are] in fear or in love. Fear makes us less rational,” says Dr. Carola Salvi, research fellow in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to fear, Salvi's team also assessed participants' “bullshit sensitivity” (the ability to correctly evaluate certain statements), their problem-solving skills, and a measure they call “sociocognitive polarization.”
Those who exhibit sociocognitive polarization are intolerant of ambiguity and more likely to be xenophobic and politically conservative. They examined how each measure affected the ability to detect fake news.
Those who fit the sociocognitive polarization profile were most likely to believe in fake news, Salvi told Medscape Medical News. They were also more likely to have high levels of anxiety.
In addition, the better someone's problem-solving skills were, the more likely they were not to believe fake news. She found that people with conservative views were more likely to believe fake news than others, as were people with a more rigid mindset.
In a report published in November 2021 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, researchers surveyed more than 1,500 adults and presented them with eight falsehoods about COVID-19 or the vaccine.
Respondents who trust network and local television stations CNN, MSNBC and NPR on COVID-19 issues believed little or no COVID-19-related misinformation, while those who trusted Newsmax, One American News and Fox News believed many misconceptions about the pandemic.
Overall, however, misinformation is widespread, according to the researchers. 78 percent of all respondents believed at least one of the false claims or were unsure of its accuracy.
Beyond misinformation: The mass of information
Given the enormous amount of scientific information during the pandemic, it has been difficult even for health experts – not to mention the public and journalists – to keep up.
About six months ago, Harvard's Viswanath asked a colleague to help him with a simple search to calculate the volume of information on COVID-19. A rough search for the term “COVID-19” quickly yielded an astronomical number of hits.
“I can’t even read one percent of it,” he said.
Much of this information is fueled by a flood of research results. Many researchers have published their studies on preprint servers, such as bioRxiv And medRxiv, that are not peer-reviewed but accelerate the dissemination of important information during the pandemic. As of January 7, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the site operator of both servers, had published more than 21,000 COVID preprints.
The consequences of misinformation
It is difficult to quantify the impact of misinformation, partisan attitudes and politics on the number of COVID-related deaths and illnesses.
In late December, researchers at the Commonwealth Fund published a study that found there would have been about 1.1 million more COVID-19 deaths without the vaccination program. They also found that there would have been more than 10.3 million additional COVID-19 hospitalizations by November 2021.
If no one had been vaccinated, this calculation suggests there could have been 21,000 deaths from Covid-19 per day. As of January 19, the average number of daily Covid deaths in the US was nearly 2,000.
Leaving the misinformation behind
In interviews with experts, various approaches were mentioned to curb the problem of misinformation and disinformation and thus improve public health communication.
Local news: Spreading messages about the pandemic locally rather than nationally can go a long way in convincing people to take preventive measures, said Adams, the former health ministry's surgeon general.
He believes local outreach can help convince more people, if not everyone, of the severity of the pandemic. When New York was “overwhelmed” at the beginning of the pandemic, he recalls, “people in Wyoming were saying, 'I don't know a single one who has died of COVID.'”
Viswanath agrees that building trust at the local level and engaging local leaders and health authorities is an effective way to educate the public about vaccines and preventive measures.
“You can’t expect them to go to the CDC site every day,” he said.
Focus on the present: Less speculation about the pandemic and its development or possible development would be another step in the right direction, said Viswanath. “There isn't any point in speculating and scaring people.”
The government also needs a clear consensus on how to communicate a unified message – and probably a unified messenger, he said.
Stop pointing fingers at others: While the political divide will not disappear, it is important to point out that “there are people in each parties who agree on some issues,” Vishwanath said. Often there is too much focus on those who disagree, but it would help to draw more attention to areas where there is agreement, regardless of political affiliation.
Stop blaming the unvaccinated, Adams said. Some anti-vaxxers have legitimate concerns. He cites a young woman who, after two bouts of COVID, honestly wonders if she needs to get vaccinated.
“If we are saying, 'You're an idiot,' then they shut down,” he said.
Responsibility for social media: Social media platforms' accountability for misinformation has improved, but it is not enough, Viswanath said. “They can minimize this misinformation. They are already doing it. They can do more.”
Reduce mistrust: “Misinformation is a big deal, but it’s not the root problem,” Adams said.
“The fundamental problem is distrust” of the health care system and government, he said. Before people will listen to you, they need to know you care, he said.
Talk to the other side: “It doesn't help to only seek advice from individuals who lend a hand as you,” says Salvi of the University of Texas. When people limit their conversations to people who share the same views, “we also remain rigid in our own position.”