Table 3.

Final Models that Predicted Infection Rates Among Each Racial/Ethnic Minority Group

	General racial/ethnic minorities		Blacks		Asians		Latinx
Variables	ß	p	ß	p	ß	p	ß	p
Exposure rate to minority news	−0.1	<0.001	—	—	—	—	—	—
Race/ethnicity	—	—	1	<0.001	—	—
Education	—	—	—	—	—	—	−9.73	0.05
Poverty	—	—	2.44	<0.001	—	—
Age	—	—	−5.34	<0.001	−2.13	<0.001	−11.49	<0.001
Proposed argument	Exposure to COVID-19 news articles about general racial/ethnic minorities will lead to lower infection rates among general minorities controlling for SDOHs		Exposure to COVID-19 news articles about Blacks will lead to lower infection rates among Blacks controlling for SDOHs		Exposure to COVID-19 news articles about Asians will lead to lower infection rates among Asians controlling for SDOHs		Exposure to COVID-19 news articles about Latinx will lead to lower infection rates among Latinx controlling for SDOHs
Whether the proposed argument was supported	Yes		Noa		Noa		Noa

In both the full models and the final models, exposure rate to minority news refers to exposure rate to COVID-19 news about a racial/ethnic minority group, race/ethnicity refers to the percentage of the minority group among the general population, education means the percentage of the minority group with at least a college degree, poverty refers to the percentage of the minority group with income in the past 12 months below poverty level, and age means the percentage of the minority group at or over 65.

For the general and each racial/ethnic minority group, the full model is: Infection rate among a racial/ethnic minority group=Exposure rate to COVID-19 news+Exposure rate to minority news+Race/ethnicity+Education+Poverty+Age+State Partisan Lean.

^a Exposure rate to COVID-19 news articles about Blacks/Asians/Latinx was not significant and therefore was removed during the model building process.

SDOHs, social determinants of health.