There are plenty of misconceptions about COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. And that’s especially true during a time when false information about the disease, the virus, and possible treatments is so hard to counteract.
Different misconceptions about the coronavirus—about how it gets transmitted, and how it leads to COVID-19 complications, for example—can result from a limited understanding of microbes and disease.
Misconceptions can also arise from a mix of different beliefs and ways of thinking that people inadvertently use when they try to make sense of things they don’t fully understand, says John Coley, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern who has been studying those thinking modes for the past 10 years.
