Rasmussen Poll Says Conservative Cable News Audience Better Understands COVID Death Risk

Coronavirus COVID-19 under the microscope. 3d illustration

According to a new poll from Rasmussen, viewers of conservative news networks and other assorted outlets have a much better understanding of the death risk of COVID-19 than those who watch liberal news networks, with viewers of Newsmax being more aware of things than those of other networks.

The survey also discovered that more viewers of Newsmax are likely to think that officials in places of authority aren’t being honest about the COVID vaccines.

via Newsmax:

According to Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. COVID-19 case-mortality rate — the percentage of diagnosed patients who have died from the disease — is 1.6%.

The Rasmussen Reports survey found 30% of U.S. adults correctly estimate the rate as being less than 2%; 20% think it’s between 2% and 5%; 17% believe it’s in the 5%-10% range; and 19% think it’s more than 10%.

The survey found 40% of Newsmax viewers correctly estimated the mortality rate, as did 34% of Fox News viewers, and 21% of One America News watchers.

The survey found 22% of CNN viewers and 24% of MSNBC viewers correctly estimated the mortality rate.

Among American viewers who stated they don’t watch the news at all, 38 percent of them correctly estimated the mortality rate, according to the results of the survey.

Here’s a bit more info from the survey that you might find interesting:

  • 37% of all adults believe public health officials are lying about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, while 44% disagree and 19% aren’t sure.
  • 62% of Newsmax viewers think public health officials are lying about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, as do 60% of OAN viewers, 49% of Fox News viewers, 26% of CNN viewers, and 25% of MSNBC viewers.
  • 24% of Democrats say they most often watch CNN; 23% of Democrats are MSNBC viewers.
  • 37% of Republicans watch Fox News, 14% watch Newsmax.
  • 18% of independents watch Fox, 12% watch CNN.
  • 28% of Democrats think more than 10% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died from the disease, as did 14% of Republicans and 10% of independents.
  • 53% of Republicans, 26% of Democrats, and 35% of independents think public health officials are lying about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Here’s the thing. The reason for this difference is that conservatives question things more and are more likely to do their own independent research to verify what they’re hearing from the news.

In fact, liberals constantly lecture that folks need to follow the science. However, this is something they only say when the science seems to support their already formed opinion. Conservatives go where the science actually leads. Big difference.