Table 4.

Confusion around COVID-19 information.

Perceptions about COVID-19 Information	Comments from First Responders
Confusing and inconsistent information	We need to be all consistent with what’s coming out. So, we’re all doing the same thing. People mix up something as simple as saying quarantine when they mean isolation and vice versa. So, there’s definitely a lot of misinformation and mis-education in my opinion. (Other staff, female, 40s.)
	The CDC guidelines is what we use. And I know for a first responder, that’s been a little bit challenging to understand sometimes. It’s changed from like as far as quarantine times, so that’s been somewhat confusing. (Police officer, male, 50s.)
Misinformation on social media	There’s not much you can do with the way social media is. I mean anybody can, you know, jump on any number of numerous platforms and write an article or a post or something and then that’s shared by millions of people. And, you know, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. I think in any walk of life, it’s going to be tough to combat the misinformation. (Police officer, male, 30s.)
	I think the greatest challenge in my personal world is sorting through the ridiculous beliefs that social media has put out as true. I feel very bad for people that believe a lot of the stuff that they quote-unquote “research” on social media. And I think people on social media are having a good time putting out ridiculous stuff just to see if people respond to it. And unfortunately, a lot of people believe that and buy into it. So, I think that’s really causing a lot of trouble with the ability to get the vaccine out and to push people in the direction of the vaccine. I feel like people are really getting a poor, poor representation of what the truth is through social media. (Paramedic, male, 50s.)
Impact of politics	It’s all like one big like political issue. You have people on the left and right who are, you know, they’ve fallen on certain sides of the whole debate. So, I mean, you know about vaccines. Like everything is, even like wearing masks, and it was, it all became political. (Firefighter, male, 30s.)
	I try to go to like CDC websites because I don’t trust any, either side of the news anymore, very much. I think both sides of the political spectrum slant the results to fit their agendas. So, I try to go with, with the CDC more than anybody else cause I figure, I mean, I’m sure there is some political crap there too, but I sort of trust them more than I trust anybody else. (Firefighter, male, 50s.)