Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Stamper, Ericca

Abstract

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 Pandemic has led to millions of deaths and created something of a ‘new normal’. However, along with the virus came an additional ‘infodemic,’: a veritable flood of misinformation about vaccines and treatments. In this thesis I will investigate if misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and the pandemic has negatively impacted the pandemic in the United States by leading to more cases. Search terms about accurate information and misinformation related to the pandemic were analyzed with Google Search Trends to find relative popularity by state and then compared against COVID-19 positive case rate data from the Centers for Disease Control within the same, one year time period. Preliminary data supports this, showing a weak, positive correlation between popularity of searching for misinformation and higher cases rates and a negative correlation between searching for accurate information and higher case rates, but further analysis will be necessary.

Comments

Thesis (B.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, 2022

Extent

61 p.

Identifier

FAUHT00205

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