The most common reasons for ignoring guidelines were wanting life to feel normal and desiring to exercise personal freedom. Other reasons cited include thinking COVID-19 was a hoax or not a major issue, believing that their behavior was no one else’s concern, not having symptoms, following the advice of a celebrity or other public figure, not wanting to miss work to quarantine, and not wanting someone to judge or think badly of them.

Significantly higher odds of misrepresentation or nonadherence to at least one measure were seen in people younger than 60 years (eg, odds ratio [OR] for 18- to 29-year-olds, 4.87) and those with greater distrust of science (OR, 1.14).

“Greater disbelief in science has been an important factor associated with nonadherence to health behaviors during the pandemic (eg, masking, vaccination uptake) and beyond,” the researchers wrote. “These groups may represent an important focus for efforts to address misrepresentation and nonadherence.”

Roughly 60% of participants reported seeking advice from a doctor on COVID-19 prevention or treatment. There was no link between COVID-19 untruthfulness and political beliefs or affiliation or religion.

Consequences of dishonesty

The authors noted that while public health measures can dramatically quell the spread and impact of disease, they can have substantial psychological, social, financial, and physical costs that can threaten adherence.

“Future work is needed to examine strategies for communicating the consequences of misrepresentation and nonadherence and to address contributing factors,” they wrote.

In a University of Utah news release, co-first author Andrea Gurmankin Levy, PhD, of Middlesex Community College, said that COVID-19 dishonesty can lead to greater transmission of the virus in communities. “For some people, particularly before we had COVID vaccines, that can mean death,” she said.

Senior author Angela Fagerlin, PhD, of the University of Utah, said that some people may think dodging the truth about COVID-19 once or twice is no big deal. “But if, as our study suggests, nearly half of us are doing it, that’s a significant problem that contributes to prolonging the pandemic,” she said in the release.

 

Source: A tangled web: 42% of Americans ignored COVID precautions or lied about taking them | CIDRAP