Trust in scientists grows as fake coronavirus news rises, UK poll finds

[Judi Lynn]

Poll finds 64% of voters more likely to listen to expert advice as 51% say they have seen fake news about virus

Severin Carrell
@severincarrell

Tue 5 May 2020 07.47 EDTLast modified on Tue 5 May 2020 15.40 EDT

Public trust in the work of scientists and health experts has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, amid a surge in misinformation about the virus, a poll has found.

The opinion poll by the Open Knowledge Foundation, an open data campaign group, found 64% of voters were now more likely to listen to expert advice from scientists and researchers, with only 5% saying they were less likely to do so.

The Survation poll also found 51% of the population had seen fake news about the coronavirus, including discredited claims that Covid-19 was linked to 5G mobile phone masts, on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Catherine Stihler, the foundation’s chief executive, said the decision to commission the poll had been triggered by a study by Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, which found last month that more than half of Britons had seen misinformation on the virus.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/05/trust-in-scientists-grows-as-fake-coronavirus-news-rises-uk-poll-finds

[genxlib]

1. I suppose that is intended to be good news

But 64% is terrible. That number should be way higher.

What it is really saying is that 1/3 of the people will believe random crap as much or more than people who actually know what they are talking about.

And don’t even get me started about people who choose “experts” that are outliers and tell you what you want to hear even though it goes against 98% of the other experts

We’re screwed.

This is why we can’t have nice things