Significant paper on the cost of misinformation. Basically, one standard deviation more viewership of Sean Hannity (denied seriousness of COVID) versus Tucker Carlson (took the pandemic seriously) is associated with in 20% more deaths at the county-level. https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_202044.pdf

It's a good paper; they took pains to control for many alternative explanations and this really looks like a causal effect of misinformation to deaths. (Stuff your correlation isn't causation one-liners: it's a stupid line and researchers aren't idiots and have taken stats 101).

Also, please note: information and misinformation changes behavior. Varying degrees but it does. Misinformation on Facebook changes behavior just like misinformation on TV. Too often people deny this because they can hide behind lack of good ways to measure it. Here, we have one.