Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
Republicans and Democrats remain far apart in their views of the threat to public health posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
70% of Americans say the core strategies for containing COVID-19 are well understood, even though studies have yielded conflicting advice.
While the CDC has pointed to some possible factors that may be contributing to this pattern, the public is divided in its perceptions.
In March 2020, about three-quarters (74%) of public Facebook posts about COVID-19 linked to news organizations, while just 1% linked to health and science sites.
65% of U.S. adults say that they have personally worn a mask in stores or other businesses all or most of the time in the past month.
Americans' views of how well the World Health Organization has dealt with the outbreak are sharply divided along partisan lines.
Black Americans stand out from other racial and ethnic groups in their attitudes toward key health care questions associated with the pandemic.
Polling finds public trust in medical scientists has increased but only among Democrats – while optimism about a vaccine is broadly shared.