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New Poll Reveals How Shockingly Ignorant People Are About COVID, How Damaging Media Lies Have Been
RedState ^ | August 18, 2020 | Bonchie

Posted on 08/18/2020 10:50:20 AM PDT by sickoflibs

How damaging has the faux hysteria emanating from the media over the coronavirus been? If a new poll from Franklin-Templeton Gallup is an indication, the result has been making most of the country completely ignorant of the scientific facts regarding the current pandemic. Not coincidently, the false perceptions that now abound just so happen to play right into left-wing desires, like perpetual lockdowns and keeping schools closed.

Brit Hume shared some of the results of the study in question this morning. They are either mind-blowing or mind-numbing depending on your outlook.

Brit Hume Twitter This is from the Franklin-Templeton Gallup research project on people’s response to Covid 19. The misconceptions are shocking. More on this here:

hese results are nothing short of stunning. Mortality data have shown from the very beginning that the COVID-19 virus age-discriminates, with deaths overwhelmingly concentrated in people who are older and suffer comorbidities. This is perhaps the only uncontroversial piece of evidence we have about this virus. Nearly all US fatalities have been among people older than 55; and yet a large number of Americans are still convinced that the risk to those younger than 55 is almost the same as to those who are older.

The biggest eye-opener is how completely vapid Americans are when it comes to knowing the risks related to COVID. Americans actually believe that those 44 and younger make up 30% of COVID deaths. In reality, if you are under 45, you are more likely to die from the flu because the death rate is so low. On the other end, Americans underestimate the risk to seniors, which actually do suffer from a very high risk from the coronavirus.

What that all adds up to is an ignorant public that doesn’t know how to mitigate properly. We are currently fighting over schools when it’s nursing homes that are actually at risk. This is the danger of media misinformation on display. While it may seem like harmless partnership at times, the lies and false panic spewed by places like CNN and MSNBC have real-world consequences.

You’ll also be less than shocked to learn that Democrats, by far, lead the country in ignoring science when talking about the virus.

For the last six months, we have all read and talked about nothing but COVID-19; how can there be still such a widespread, fundamental misunderstanding of the basic facts? Our poll results identify two major culprits: the quality of information and the extreme politicization of the COVID-19 debate:

People who get their information predominantly from social media have the most erroneous and distorted perception of risk. Those who identify as Democrats tend to mistakenly overstate the risk of death from COVID-19 for younger people much more than Republicans. All those Democrats on Twitter who are constantly spreading nonsense about schools, death rates, and the risks of the coronavirus in general simply have no idea what they are talking about. According to this poll, that’s largely because they live in their social media bubbles, getting information from sources that continually mislead them on the real facts behind the virus.

Anecdotes about younger people dying from COVID, which has less chance of happening than them dying from a lightning strike, are one of the chief tools the media uses to skew perceptions and spread fear. As a result, we see people who are statistically not at risk believing that someone who is 20 has a high chance of dying from the virus if contracted. Again, the science says that’s false, but media bias via social media has conditioned Democrats to believe all kinds of nonsense.

When confronted with these realities, the most typical response is denial and digging up more anecdotes, which are not evidence of anything. For example, I noted on Twitter some weeks ago the extraordinarily low rate of transmission from students to teachers. The immediate response was to claim I wanted children to die and pointing to a singular case in Israel, whereas the rest of the world had not seen a single other transmission. These people operate purely off of partisan emotion.

In the end, it all comes back to Trump. If Barack Obama were in office, the media wouldn’t be acting the way they are acting and people wouldn’t be as ill-informed. But the orange man being bad overtakes all logic and common sense. Thus, we are left with a large percentage of the populace wanting to make policy decisions based on false “facts” about the virus. That’s dangerous, but it’s also the natural result of a media so hopelessly biased that they can’t be trusted to report honestly about something as non-partisan as a deadly disease.


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2020election; chinavirusinfo; chinavirusnews; covid19; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; medialies; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; smearmachine
Don't forget the outright censorship by youtube, twitter facebook.
1 posted on 08/18/2020 10:50:20 AM PDT by sickoflibs
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To: sickoflibs

Also, Trump has unfortunately played a large role in this exaggeration by keeping the fearmongers Fauci and Birx as the face of this. With the right people at the helm, these misconceptions could have been beaten back to some degree. Amazes me that Trump still keeps letting them go on with their deep state ways.


2 posted on 08/18/2020 10:56:48 AM PDT by Codeflier (Covid-19 taught me: Two types of "conservatives", frightened safety seekers vs. freedom lovers)
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To: sickoflibs

Yep. No way the media could coerce the American public to vote in Biden over Trump. /s


3 posted on 08/18/2020 10:56:48 AM PDT by CatOwner
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To: sickoflibs

Democrats, the party of Death!


4 posted on 08/18/2020 11:00:21 AM PDT by magyars4 (To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men!)
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To: sickoflibs

Click this link and give it about 30 seconds to download the latest CDC data.

More people are dying from aliens attacking us in the past month/week than from Covid 19.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm


5 posted on 08/18/2020 11:01:27 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Vote Biden and share the Seattle/Portland/New York/Chicago/LA death to America/and you! experience!)
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To: sickoflibs

Propaganda is highly effective, when the population is continually saturated with it. When hearing the same drivel from a variety of outlets (though they all serve the same master), people come to believe it, because after all, with “everyone” saying it, it all must be true.


6 posted on 08/18/2020 11:06:16 AM PDT by ScottinVA (It's over. Split the country... it can and should be done.)
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To: sickoflibs

Mainstream-Media-Enemy-Of-The-People BUMP


7 posted on 08/18/2020 11:09:02 AM PDT by Pajamajan ( Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it] today.)
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To: sickoflibs

People in America are shockingly ignorant about a great many things.

TV “man on the street” shows prove that repeatedly.

Thank you pubic school teachers, TV, Hollywood and MSM! You dumbed America way down. Aren’t you all so very proud of yourselves!?


8 posted on 08/18/2020 11:25:15 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
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To: sickoflibs
Another reason I believe the Social Media sites are dumbing down our society. I was on Facebook for a while to connect with old friends until I noticed how stupid, mis-informed, biased, petty, and ego-centric its participants are. I cancelled couple years back and will never deal with that stupid "friend me" forum again.

It still amazes me that FB people think the more people who push the friend button the more standing they have. Flash: Dumbshits, they are not your friends. I also don't Tweet. Anonymous posters saying any inane thought they have at the moment. I believe they use Twitter as a relief valve for their own social/mental deficiencies. Pfft.

9 posted on 08/18/2020 11:29:30 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamo nauseated. Also LGBTQxyz nauseated)
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To: sickoflibs; Uncle Sham

The media has also convinced people that Fauci and Birx are the smartest people on the planet and someone to be idolized. Plush and booble head dolls being made of them. DJ on the rock station out here called Fauci hot, as in wildly popular. I have no doubt that if Trump fired them, it could hurt his re-election chances

10 posted on 08/18/2020 11:33:50 AM PDT by Pollard (whatever)
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To: sickoflibs
You’ll also be less than shocked to learn that Democrats, by far, lead the country in ignoring science when talking about the virus.

I went out today to buy 300 pounds of sunflower seed at my local AGWAY.

I wore no mask, but I axed the dock loader if a mask was required, he said, out loud, "Only if you are a biden voter".

I confess, the dock loader, knew I am a Trumper, but...

Also, at my farmer's barn, where I bought corn, SHE said, TRUMP was HER hero, and all of her 11 children, their spouses, and eligible grandchildren will be voting for Trump, OR SHE WILL KILL THEM.

She picks up two, 50 pound bags of corn, one in each hand, and loads them into my vehicle.

If I were not a Trump voter, after I watch this woman load my corn, I'd convert.

I am so grateful that I am a Trumpster.

11 posted on 08/18/2020 11:42:08 AM PDT by USS Alaska
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To: sickoflibs

I wonder what percentage of people don’t know about the much higher risk people who are deficient in vitamin D have of COVID 19 infection/death. At least 3 out of 4 people are deficient of this vitamin. Very sad.


12 posted on 08/18/2020 11:47:17 AM PDT by MulberryDraw (The "woke" are day dreaming.)
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To: sickoflibs
Time is running out for the America/American-hating Democrat/Left on the COVID response hoax ... but they've just got to keep it going up to the first Tuesday in November. It's a critical component of their evil plan to destroy our Republic by keeping people frightened to the point of sheer panic, distrustful of every other person, depressed to the point of nearly giving up and giving in, and angry at everything and everybody.

Coupled with the riots by the racist/terrorist BLM and antifa cults and near complete control of the media, the America/American-hating Democrat/Left is desperate -- therefore highly dangerous -- as they know this is their last best shot at destroying our Republic and our Constitution and replacing it with their "socialist utopia".

Trump is doing what he can but we desperately need a breakthrough ... not just to win back the hearts and minds of a severely frightened and severely mind-numbed population, but to remove the source of that great irrational fear so Americans will again hear what the evil Democrats/Leftists have planned for America and rally to defeat these enemies of Liberty. I don't know what sort of breakthrough or what form it should take ... I just know we desperately need something to counter and even reverse the Democrat/Left's attacks on our Republic as the attacks intensify greatly over the next two months.

13 posted on 08/18/2020 11:57:31 AM PDT by glennaro (Prager: Being on the Left makes people cowards)
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To: All
New Poll Reveals How Shockingly Ignorant People Are.

Headline could have just stopped there.

14 posted on 08/18/2020 12:08:20 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: sickoflibs

Anyone who uses FB isn’t thinking right....IMO.


15 posted on 08/18/2020 12:12:22 PM PDT by Osage Orange (TRUMP!!!)
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To: sickoflibs

What’s gone on here with CCP-19 is damned criminal

From Givernor Cuomo placing elderly who are infected in managed care facilities to the damned breathless and factless reporting on this.

What an effin fraud and givernments continue to hammer everyone with some odd moral construct that we are saving lives and then invent a number of what would have happened had we not quarantined 1/2 of California.

People should be jailed over this but, nothing will happen.

They will be sung as heroes....

Maybe they will build monuments to them so they can be torn down one day...


16 posted on 08/18/2020 12:37:51 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: sickoflibs

17 posted on 08/18/2020 2:50:29 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: sickoflibs

18 posted on 08/18/2020 2:51:36 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: Pollard
"I have no doubt that if Trump fired them, it could hurt his re-election chances"

Replacing them with another viewpoint after their failed policies have resulted in the continuation of a pandemic would be welcomed by the vast majority of Americans. The end of needless deaths because HCQ is being held back or made almost impossible to get, the need for mask everywhere, the reopening of businesses and schools, and in general a return to some level of normalcy would be incredibly well received by the public. For those who think an executive order allowing the free use of the HCQ approach could somehow be demonized and turned into a death trap, you need to consider that the results in countries that have had far greater survival and recovery rates because HCQ is allowed to be used are already PROVEN and cooked into the books. If leftist tried to sabotage our use of HCQ it would be readily visible that THEY are killing people. I don't see a down side to Trump ENDING this national nightmare now. The longer he waits, the more he will be held accountable for allowing the pandemic to survive and kill people. Their lives are certainly worth more than any election results ever could be.

19 posted on 08/19/2020 3:21:51 PM PDT by Uncle Sham
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