31 Daniel A. Cox et al., “America’s Crisis of Confidence: Rising Mistrust, Conspiracies, and Vaccine Hesitancy After COVID-19: Findings from the May 2023 American Perspectives Survey,” American Survey Center, September 28, 2023, https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research /americas-crisis-of-confidence-rising-mistrust-conspiracies-and-vaccine-hesitancy-after-covid-19.
32 Ashley Kirzinger et al., “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from Three Years of KFF Polling,” KFF, March 7, 2023, https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/the-covid-19-pandemic-insights-from-three-years-of-kff-polling.
33 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer [Research Report] (Edelman Trust Institute, 2022), https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2022-01/Trust%2022_Top10.pdf.
34 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer: Global Report [Research Report] (Edelman Trust Institute, 2022), https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2022-01/2022%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20FINAL_Jan25.pdf.
35 “2023 Edelman Trust Barometer: Navigating a Polarized World,” Edelman, https://www.edelman.com/trust/2023/trust-barometer.
36 Jonathan Haidt, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” The Atlantic, April 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369.
37 Tim Miller, “President Candace,” The Bulwark, July 18, 2023, https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/president-candace-owens.
38 Mercier, Not Born Yesterday, 225–247.
39 Rottenberg and Perman, “Meet the Ojai Dad.”
40 This is where Willis’s editing skills are most apparent; Mikovits had done dozens of interviews with conspiracy theorist YouTube channels in the weeks leading up to Plandemic. They got some attention within the communities but were not breakout successes because she often rambled and relied on scientific jargon. Plandemic, by contrast, skillfully worked around the speaker’s tendency toward convoluted explanations.
41 “#1263—Renée DiResta,” The Joe Rogan Experience, Spotify, March 2019, https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VX7FJGIYr1eKSEagOeb22.
42 Todd Spangler, “Joe Rogan Tries to Clarify Controversial Comments About COVID Vaccines,” Reuters, April 30, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/variety/joe-rogan-tries-to-clarify-controversial-comments-about-covid-vaccines-idINL4N2MM5PH.
43 E. J. Dickson, “How Joe Rogan Became a Cheerleader for Ivermectin,” Rolling Stone, September 2, 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/joe-rogan-covid19-misinformation-ivermectin-spotify-podcast-1219976.
44 Diane Mapes, “Spinning Science: Overhyped Headlines, Snarled Statistics Lead Readers Astray,” Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Hutch News Stories, February 13, 2020, https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2020/02/spinning-science-overhyped-headlines-snarled-statistics-lead-readers-astray.html.
45 Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), 106–107.
46 Sheera Frenkel, “The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online,” New York Times, July 24, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/technology/joseph-mercola-coronavirus-misinformation-online.html.
47 Jon D. Lee, An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease (Boulder: University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press, 2014), 59.
48 Tara Haelle, “This Is the Moment the Anti-vaccine Movement Has Been Waiting For,” New York Times, August 31, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/anti-vaccine-movement.html.
49 Renée DiResta, “Anti-vaxxers Think This Is Their Moment,” The Atlantic, December 20, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/campaign-against-vaccines-already-under-way/617443.
50 Brandy Zadrozny, “Parents Are Poisoning Their Children with Bleach to ‘Cure’ Autism. These Moms Are Trying to Stop It,” NBC News, May 21, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871.
51 Renée DiResta and Claire Wardle, “Online Misinformation About Vaccines” (paper contributed to “Meeting the Challenge of Vaccination Hesitancy,” Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group, May 2020, https://www.sabin.org/app/uploads/2022/04/Sabin-Aspen-report-2020_Meeting-the-Challenge-of-Vaccine-Hesitancy.pdf).
52 Julia Carrie Wong, “How Facebook and YouTube Help Spread Anti-vaxxer Propaganda,” The Guardian, February 1, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/01/facebook-youtube-anti-vaccination-misinformation-social-media; Jessica Glenza, “Majority of Anti-vaxx Ads on Facebook Are Funded by Just Two Organizations,” The Guardian, November 14, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/13/majority-antivaxx-vaccine-ads-facebook-funded-by-two-organizations-study.
