30% of Americans say coronavirus was made in a lab, despite evidence to the contrary, Pew survey finds
Published: April 13, 2020 By Quentin Fottre
Published: April 13, 2020 By Quentin Fottre
Younger U.S. adults were more likely than older people to say the virus was developed in a laboratory
Beliefs about the origins of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are also split along educational lines. MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto
What’s the difference between an urban myth and a fact supported by evidence? Not a lot, it seems.
Nearly 3 in 10 (29%) Americans say the novel coronavirus was most likely created in a laboratory, according to a survey of nearly 9,000 adults in the U.S. conducted from March 10 to 16, 2020 by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.
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However, a sizable minority have a conspiracy theory about how it started. Roughly one quarter of adults (23%) say it is most likely that the current strain of coronavirus was developed intentionally in a laboratory, while 6% say it was most likely made accidentally in a lab.
That’s despite evidence that the virus came about naturally and jumped from a bat in a food market to another animal and then to a human, according to scientists, “though there is some uncertainty about how it first infected people,” Pew noted.
Younger U.S. adults were more likely than older people to say the virus was developed in a lab: One-third of adults aged 18 to 29 said it was developed in a lab (35%) versus 21% of adults 65 and older. Experts say it likely emerged at a food market in Wuhan, China.
Some 10,056 of the 23,608 U.S. fatalities were in New York State, as of Monday; almost 7,000 of those were in New York City. Nearly 189,000 of the 581,918 confirmed cases in the U.S. were in New York State. There number of confirmed cases worldwide hit 2 million, with nearly 120,000 deaths.
Nearly 3 in 10 (29%) Americans say the novel coronavirus was most likely created in a laboratory, according to a survey of nearly 9,000 adults in the U.S. conducted from March 10 to 16, 2020 by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.
23 SKIDOO
However, a sizable minority have a conspiracy theory about how it started. Roughly one quarter of adults (23%) say it is most likely that the current strain of coronavirus was developed intentionally in a laboratory, while 6% say it was most likely made accidentally in a lab.
That’s despite evidence that the virus came about naturally and jumped from a bat in a food market to another animal and then to a human, according to scientists, “though there is some uncertainty about how it first infected people,” Pew noted.
Younger U.S. adults were more likely than older people to say the virus was developed in a lab: One-third of adults aged 18 to 29 said it was developed in a lab (35%) versus 21% of adults 65 and older. Experts say it likely emerged at a food market in Wuhan, China.
Some 10,056 of the 23,608 U.S. fatalities were in New York State, as of Monday; almost 7,000 of those were in New York City. Nearly 189,000 of the 581,918 confirmed cases in the U.S. were in New York State. There number of confirmed cases worldwide hit 2 million, with nearly 120,000 deaths.
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