Do you believe that COVID-19 was created by Bill Gates so he and his Big Pharma pals could get rich selling a cure? Do you believe career government employees are exaggerating COVID-19 to sway the election to their side?

If so, there is a strong chance political experts know how you vote - and it is for opposing parties. Just like many aspects of science that have become political footballs, the SARS-CoV2 virus that has shaken the world is shaking America even more, thanks to American Exceptionalism. Even when it comes to disasters, we have to be more impacted by coronavirus, because America stinks or America is most important, depending on how you seek to live your life. If you hate President Trump, you are more likely to believe that China only had 4,000 COVID-19 deaths or that America has worse health care infrastructure than Brazil. If you like President Trump, you are more likely to believe an off-label malaria drug is a therapy based on anecdotes.

Yet combined, the conspiracy theories of both sides are enough to hold us all back. 

Recent survey results find that in March 28 percent of people willing to answer survey questions twice (n=840) claimed to believe that that the Chinese government created the coronavirus as a bioweapon, and that went up the more journalists began to defend China; to 37 percent in July. Over 15 percent of people on the 'science is a corporate conspiracy' side believed that scientists created the virus to sell vaccines, and that went up by July also. Instead of information assuring people, the infodemic capitalizing on the pandemic - 8,000 preprints on coronavirus to-date, all which will claim to be peer-reviewed - and journalists rushing to promote every correlational study that came out, have decreased confidence. 



Where do you find these claims being given credence? Right-wing and left-wing media and their social media followers, like everything else. 

All is not lost, though. Even among those who thought CDC was exaggerating risk, over 60 percent wear masks. And while the west coast remains the home of anti-vaccine sentiment, it is a safe bet that when a vaccine for COVID-19 comes out, many are paying a premium to be first in line. Only 22 percent of those who believed that scientists had created the pandemic to make money in their corporation-y buildings still intended to reject vaccines for COVID-19 as they do for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR). That is a big improvement over just a few years ago, when 74 percent of kids in some Marin County, California schools were not vaccinated.

The situation is not perfect but science is still making progress.