Whether someone takes proper (sic) precautions to fight COVID-19 may be linked to whether they trust right- or left-leaning media outlets, according to a new USC study.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Whether someone wears a mask, practices physical distancing or performs other behaviors to prevent COVID-19 infection may be linked to what media outlets they trust.
In 2020, individuals’ behavior in response to the pandemic has closely correlated with the kinds of mass media outlets they trust, according to a study authored by USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology PhD students Erfei Zhao and Qiao Wu. The article was co-authored by University Professor Eileen Crimmins, holder of the AARP Chair in Gerontology, and Associate Professor of Gerontology and Sociology Jennifer Ailshire and appeared online in the journal BMJ Global Health on October 8, 2020.
Zhao, Wu and colleagues analyzed response data from the Understanding America Study’s COVID-19 panel on how often more than 4800 participants performed five virus-mitigating behaviors during the coronavirus pandemic: (1) wearing a face mask, (2) washing hands with soap or using hand sanitizer several times per day, (3) canceling or postponing personal or social activities, (4) avoiding eating at restaurants, (5) and avoiding public spaces, gatherings or crowds. In addition, the team also looked at risky health behaviors, including going out to a bar, club or other place where people gather; going to another person’s residence; having outside visitors such as friends, neighbors or relatives at one’s home; attending a gathering with more than 10 people, such as a party, concert or religious service; or having close contact (within six feet) with someone who doesn’t live with the respondent.
Using CNN as an example of a left-leaning news source and Fox News as a news source on the right side of the political spectrum, the study identified the relative amount of trust participants reported in either news source with the risky or positive behaviors they engaged in. Around 29% of respondents said they trusted CNN more than Fox News; roughly half (52%) expressed no preference between the two, and one in five (20%) said they trusted Fox more than CNN.
Risky behaviors were highest among participants who reported more trust in Fox News with an average of 1.25 risky acts in a 7-day period, followed closely by those who reported trusting neither outlet, while CNN viewers reported an average of .94 risky behaviors during the same time period. Positive behaviors were more frequently reported among those who trusted CNN (an average of 3.85 preventive actions in a 7-day window) more than those who trusted Fox News (3.41 positive behaviors on average).
The results imply that behavior sharply differs along media bias lines, indicating that partisan narratives are likely getting in the way of solid health messaging that encourages healthy behavior change.
“In such a highly partisan environment, false information can be easily disseminated. Health messaging, which is one of the few effective ways to slow down the spread of the virus in the absence of a vaccine, is being damaged by politically biased and economically focused narratives,” said Zhao and Wu.
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The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health grant P30 AG017265 (Crimmins) for the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health. The UAS COVID National Sample dataset is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NIH, and Social Security Administration.
Without a link to the study it’s difficult to fairly assess it, but the “preventative”/”negative” actions listed may be mandated/prohibited by local/state mandates, and those mandates are known to be more aggressive in Dem-leaning areas. By itself this should produce a bias towards the “media-trusting” Democratic areas. (Since those also have higher per capita death rates, it’s a pity they aren’t looking for correlation between preventative/negative actions and Covid dath rate, instead of nebulous media trust — that would be more amusing.)
Still, it’s interesting to read that both camps have an average of only 3-4 positive behaviors *per week* — less than once per day. I wonder how that’s counted.. And both camps round to just one “risky” behavior per week.
“five virus-mitigating behaviors during the coronavirus pandemic: (1) wearing a face mask, (2) washing hands with soap or using hand sanitizer several times per day, (3) canceling or postponing personal or social activities, (4) avoiding eating at restaurants, (5) and avoiding public spaces, gatherings or crowds.”
#2 (wash hands) and #5 (avoid crowds of 50+) are the only two that are proven to work. Numbers 3, 4 & 5 are all dealing with size of crowds so simplify it to “avoid crowds of 50+”.
Check out how various countries are doing:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/
Sweden, Belarus and Nicaragua are interesting but Taiwan takes the cake. In this pandemic, like golf, a lower score is better and I don’t see anyone beating 7. How are they counting deaths compared to other countries? What treatments are they providing and early/late?
I suspect that at least some countries with low mortalities are actually doing out-patient treatments, rather than largely shutting that down, like in the US, and telling people to only go to the hospital when the disease has progressed to a serious state that is harder to treat and treated with toxic experimental drugs and ventilators.
I’d like to know what differences there were in infection rates based on media trust.
“The results imply that behavior sharply differs along media bias lines, indicating that partisan narratives are likely getting in the way of solid health messaging that encourages healthy behavior change.”
Or…conservative minded people are more skeptical than liberal minded people and like to decide things for themselves rather than march to a social group-think.
I wonder if there was a difference in infection rate between conservatives and liberals…hmm. I am willing to bet there was, and more liberals (as a percent of their group) where infected then conservatives. Lots of reasons why this might be so, but it could easily be twisted into a narrative about who lies about their prevention habits more.
Just more propaganda.
My study shows that trust in commercial media correlates more strongly with spectacularly poor investment decisions, and a high frequency of unintended self-injury.
Here is an interesting tidbit. Yesterday I walked up to the local store, and the local paper had a headline stating that there had been 7 confirmed cases in the county this week. I made a remark about that to the owner, and she replied that they were all proven to be false positives. This after noon I took a look at the NYT virus update page, updated to the afternoon of the 10th at the time. Their page clearly stated that my county had 10 confirmed new cases this week. Given how many counties (3,141) there are in the US it would then be a simple matter to alter the daily US new case count in whatever direction they wanted to. Think about it. The daily new case average was running around 40,000/day since the middle of August. Then in the last 3 days the numbers shoot up over 50,000/day just like magic. All of the media sites get to talk about that. It verifies the exact number which Biden had stated in his recent town hall meetings, that there were 50K+/day in new cases in the US even before there were actually 50K/day occurring. How does that happen.
BIden also gives another false numbers claim over the last 6 weeks. That is the claim that wearing masks could save 100,000 lives by the end of the year, if everyone wore a mask. Yet, it is obvious now that with a declining daily death count down to 700/day for the last 3 weeks that means we should expect to see less than 65,000 total new deaths by the end of the year. The daily rate would have to jump up to 2,000+ a day in order for Biden’s remarks to become true. For one that shows how out of touch that Biden is, and that he is lousy with numbers. Another thought is will the number fixers do something like switch flu cases to covid cases to boost the covid count? You could get a count of close to several hundred thousand when the flu season kicks in, if the flu was extra strong, or if the people who make the yearly flu vaccines mess up the vaccines. One thing of which I am now certain of is that the hand of man is 100% behind this virus in making it appear worse than it is to drive/herd people into becoming obedient to an agenda.
I came across a video in which Dr Fauci is participating in a video conference hosted by Cell, a medical publishing site. In that video Fauci discusses forming a new UN committee with extraordinary powers to handle future crisises. Fauci speaks of the need to sacrifice and completely change society in an operation which will likely take several decades of hardship. Those are his words!!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like something that would be said by CCP officials, or Obama, or Soros, or by the climate change agenda people. I see now that Dr Fauci is one of “them”. That is beyond doubt.
In other news, poll shows that people on the left are more likely to have very exaggerated views of the dangers of the virus https://www.franklintempleton.com/investor/article?contentPath=html%2Fftthinks%2Fen-us-retail%2Fcio-views%2Fon-my-mind-they-blinded-us-from-science.html
The secret service was put at great risk by being masked (SFP2) next to masked (chirurgical) Donald Trump – allegedly.
So now spare us the “proper (sic) precautions to fight COVID-19”. Corona will get us all even if we have spacesuits. We are doomed.