In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
Overall, health misinformation is widely prevalent in the U.S. with 96% of adults saying they have heard at least one of the ten items of health-related misinformation asked about in the survey. The most widespread misinformation items included in the survey were related to COVID-19 and vaccines, including that the COVID-19 vaccines have caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people (65% say they have heard or read this) and that the MMR vaccines have been proven to cause autism in children (65%).
"The MMR vaccines have been proven to cause autism in children" Percent who say that claim is probably true or definitely true:
Total 24%Education
High school or less 31%
Some college 23%
College degree 16%
Black 35%
Hispanic 25%
White 21%
Gender
Men 22%
Women 25%
Age
18-29 23%
30-49 29%
50-64 25%
65+ 15%
Party ID
Republicans 29%
Independents 34%
Democrats 14%
Community type
Rural 25%
Suburban 23%
Urban 24%
