On Nov. 10, 2021, a study by researchers at Georgia State University showed that the politicization of science in the U.S. limited the positive impacts that scientific advances offered when people rejected sound and beneficial scientific advice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social media messages compounded politicization of the virus. Stories that circulated widely on social media included false claims (such as transmission of coronavirus through mosquito bites), conspiracy theories (the virus is spread by 5G towers) and pseudoscientific health therapies (eating garlic or drinking bleach can cure the disease).