40% of Americans aren't truthful about COVID-19

Just in case you needed yet another reason to be disappointed in your fellow humans, here I am with more depressing news. Researchers from University of Utah found that four out of ten Americans they surveyed stated that they did not practice full disclosure with others—i.e. they lied or withheld information—about having COVID-19 or enacting COVID-safe practices. Why? Well, because they wanted to "feel normal" or "exercise personal freedom." The authors of the study posit that this lack of honesty is potentially helping the virus spread and prolonging the pandemic. University of Utah Health explains:

"COVID-19 safety measures can certainly be burdensome, but they work," says Andrea Gurmankin Levy, Ph.D., a professor of social sciences at Middlesex Community College in Connecticut. As co-lead author of the study, she worked in collaboration with Fagerlin and other scientists at U of U Heath as well as researchers elsewhere in the United States.

"When people are dishonest about their COVID-19 status or what precautions they are taking, it can increase the spread of disease in their community." Levy says. "For some people, particularly before we had COVID vaccines, that can mean death."

Some of the most common incidents were:

–Breaking quarantine rules

–Telling someone they were with, or were about to see, that they were taking more COVID-19 precautions than they actually were

–Not mentioning that they might have had, or knew that they had, COVID-19 when entering a doctor's office

–Telling someone they were vaccinated when they weren't

–Saying they weren't vaccinated when they actually were

To read more about the study, which just proves to me what I've known all along—you really can't trust anyone to tell you the truth about their COVID practices—click here. Read it and weep.