As COVID cases rise, doctors worry about the consequences of misinformation

Photo by: Olga Pankova/Getty

PBS NewsHour
Seeing COVID rates hit another high, and vaccine uptake remain low, doctors don’t have an antidote for something they see as an ongoing risk factor: the spread of misinformation, including on the presidential campaign trail.

This week, speaking before a crowd of Republicans in New Hampshire, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out another falsehood about COVID vaccines.

“Every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it,” said DeSantis, one of several political leaders who have consistently and without evidence challenged the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

Public health experts and doctors are worried that this kind of misinformation is still shaping how people perceive the virus and tools designed to protect individuals and communities against COVID’s worst outcomes. In recent weeks, U.S. wastewater surveillance data has shown that COVID cases have risen to second-highest levels since the pandemic began, fueled by a new dominant strain, an omicron subvariant called JN.1, that is not as well understood as past surges. According to the World Health Organization, around 10,000 people died from COVID in December and hospitalizations rose by more than 40 percent in the Americas and across Europe. MORE