When U.S. President Joe Biden accused Facebook of "killing people" by spreading vaccine lies in July, many experts and researchers hoped it marked the beginning of a White House battle against a flood of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic coursing through the United States.
Six months later, the deluge of misinformation continues and entities combating harmful information want the White House to do more. COVID-19 deaths recently hit their highest in almost a year, with over 2,600 people dying on average each day. U.S. studies show the unvaccinated are dying at much higher rates than those with jabs and boosters.
"The problem of vaccine misinformation was big a year ago and it is still big now," said David Lazer, who co-leads the COVID States Project. Fighting misinformation "requires continued focus and attention and effort," he said.