For years, the working theory about health misinformation was reassuringly simple: It was a fringe problem, confined to a narrow slice of the population—the deeply partisan, the undereducated, the chronically online. A sweeping new global survey blows that theory apart.
The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health, based on responses from more than 16,000 people across 16 countries, found that seven in 10 people worldwide believe at least one of six widely debunked health claims to be true.
