Misinformation about the coronavirus harming those who believe it was the subject of a Saturday segment on MSNBC’s “American Voices” with Alicia Menendez.

The host interviewed Prof. Roy Perlis, who teaches psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

“Harvard out with a new study shining a light on how misinformation affects public health. What have you learned?” Menendez asked.

“It’s pretty striking,” Dr. Perlis replied. “In our most recent survey, we ask our 20,000 U.S. respondents about four items of misinformation related to vaccination. One in five believe at least one of them and about half of the people we asked weren’t sure about at least one of them. So that gives you some sense of just how much misinformation is out there.”

“One of the things that was really interesting is, it can have a big impact on our mental health, right? That, just being exposed to that misinformation,” Menendez said.

So, before we even talk about mental health, there’s the fact that if you believe one of those items of misinformation, you’re about half as likely to be vaccinated,” he replied. “So […]