ABSTRACT
It evolved as the events of 2020 unfolded, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, and the major implications for media impact became apparent. Misinformation about health care-related things was not only misleading but also potentially dangerous, whether it was people being urged to drink Clorox to fight the virus or people being told that wearing masks to protect from the virus did not work. Wearing a mask ended up being critical to controlling the spread of the virus, but even that simple act was politicized, and many people in the United States were put in jeopardy, having been told that wearing a mask was not the right thing to do. A Gallup poll of 35,000 Americans showed that differing beliefs about the pandemic lined up clearly along political lines, with conservatives believing that asymptomatic people could not transmit the virus and that wearing a mask did not keep it from spreading.
