Poll finds most US adults believe or unsure of at least one false statement about COVID-19

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WASHINGTON -- More than three quarters of US adults believe or are unsure of at least one false statement about the COVID-19 pandemic or COVID-19 vaccines, according to polling data published Monday.

The poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that 78 percent of US adults surveyed said they either believed or were not sure about at least one of eight false COVID-19 statements that the organization tested.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of unvaccinated adults believed or were unsure about at least half of the eight false statements - more than three times the share of vaccinated adults (19 percent), according to the new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report.

Nearly half (46 percent) of Republicans believed or were unsure about at least half the statements, three times the share of Democrats (14 percent).

"The findings highlight a major challenge for efforts to accurately communicate the rapidly evolving science about the pandemic when false and ambiguous information can spread quickly, whether inadvertently or deliberately, through social media, polarized news sources and other outlets," said the report.

The report noted there was also a split based on which news sources people trusted.

Less than 20 percent of people who trusted local TV news, NPR, MSNBC, network news, or CNN believed or were unsure of four or more false statements, it said.

Among those who trusted Fox News, that was higher, at 36 percent, and among those who trusted Newsmax it was 46 percent, it said.

"Whether this is because people are exposed to misinformation from those news sources, or whether the types of people who choose those news sources are the same ones who are pre-disposed to believe certain types of misinformation for other reasons, is beyond the scope of the analysis," said the report.

The poll was conducted Oct 14-24 among 1,519 adults and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.