Fake Polls, Real Consequences: The Rise of Fake Polls and the Case for Criminal Liability

… Though most pollsters adhere to sound methodological practices, the dependence of political journalism – and campaigns, independent political organizations, and so on – on polls opens a door for the unsavory. Fake polls have started to proliferate online. Their goal is to influence online political betting markets, so that […] Read more »

A Study Said Covid Wasn’t That Deadly. The Right Seized It.

… Preprints are meant to help scientists find and discuss new findings in real time, which is especially important during a pandemic. They generally carry a warning label: “This research has yet to be peer reviewed.” To a scientist, this means it’s provisional knowledge — maybe true, maybe not. But […] Read more »

Most Americans Say Federal Government Has Primary Responsibility for COVID-19 Testing

As a growing number of states ease stay-at-home restrictions imposed in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, a majority of Americans (61%) say it is primarily the federal government’s responsibility to make sure there are enough COVID-19 tests in order to safely lift the restrictions. … Since late […] Read more »

Americans Struggle to Navigate COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’

The novel coronavirus pandemic has spawned what the World Health Organization is calling an “infodemic,” an overabundance of information — some of it false — about COVID-19. Americans divide evenly over whether it is harder or easier to be well-informed about the coronavirus because of easy access to a wide […] Read more »