New study suggests Sean Hannity helped spread the coronavirus

Vox

Viewers who watched Hannity's Fox News show downplay coronavirus in February and early March while avoiding Tucker Carlson Tonight -- which warned viewers about the disease's risks -- were less likely to adhere to social distancing, according to a paper from economists Leonardo Bursztyn, Aakaash Rao, Christopher Roth, and David Yanagizawa-Drott. “Greater exposure to Hannity relative to Tucker Carlson Tonight leads to a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths,” they write. “A one-standard deviation increase in relative viewership of Hannity relative to Carlson is associated with approximately 30 percent more COVID-19 cases on March 14, and 21 percent more COVID-19 deaths on March 28.” As Vox points out, "this is a working paper; it hasn’t been peer reviewed or accepted for publication at a journal. However, it’s consistent with a wide body of research finding that media consumption in general, and Fox News viewership in particular, can have a pretty powerful effect on individual behavior." ALSO: Dr. Oz and Fox News have suddenly stopped hyping hydroxychloroquine after a study found it caused a higher death rate in coronavirus sufferers.