R&I – FS
Doctors say they’re facing increased skepticism and pushback from patients over Covid-19 treatments. They and researchers attribute this to skeptical and misinformed coverage of the pandemic, which often amplify President Donald Trump’s misstatements.
“The right-wing media and President Trump eroded faith and trust in scientists and in actual data during this pandemic, so now we’re left at the end of December with this terrible surge in hospitalizations,” Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor at the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in treating HIV, told NBC News.
One published academic analysis found that from Feb. 1 to March 23, right-leaning outlets had published nearly 4,000 stories with misinformation about Covid-19 compared with mainstream outlets, which had about 1,500. The researchers also found that “right-leaning media viewers are more than twice as likely to endorse Covid-related misinformation.”
As a result, based on polling data, these misinformed individuals are “significantly more likely to believe that the CDC is exaggerating the health risks of the virus,” the researchers wrote.
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Article URL : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/doctors-blame-right-wing-media-eroding-trust-during-pandemic-n1251221