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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Category: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories

What We Lost: Public Trust in the Medical Information Discourse Over the Pandemic

Contagion One of the most damaging aspects of the pandemic is that misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and therapies created unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths. “We always cite the statistic that about 200,000 people died in 2021 alone after the COVID-19 vaccines were available,” said Katrine Wallace, PhD, research epidemiologist and an assistant professor of epidemiology and […]

Sep 12, 2023

‘There’s a virus on the loose: A freak rainstorm at Burning Man led to claims the festival had been hit by an Ebola outbreak

Daily Dot A long line of vehicles lined up on Monday, waiting up to eight hours to exit the Burning Man festival after heavy rains and mud prompted a lockdown that left thousands of attendees stranded at the desert venue. But some are chalking up the saga to more than just bad weather. Among those is firebrand […]

Sep 5, 2023

Doctors, influencers call on their peers to use social media to ‘pre-bunk’ dangerous misinformation

Fierce Healthcare As medicine moves to proactive models of care, medical professionals are taking the same approach toward health misinformation on social media. During Fortune’s recent Brainstorm Health event, three medically trained health influencers discussed the importance of heading off the next big medical myths. Jessica Malaty Rivera is a research program assistant at the Johns Hopkins […]

Aug 29, 2023

Kaiser Family Foundation: A significant portion of the public is susceptible to health misinformation

KFF While health misinformation and disinformation long preceded the pandemic, the pervasiveness of false and inaccurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines brought into further focus the extent to which misinformation can distort public health policy debates and impact the health choices individuals make. KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor surveys in 2021 and 2022 found that large shares of the public […]

Aug 22, 2023

YouTube announces new policies to target medical misinformation

The Hill YouTube on Tuesday announced it is creating a new framework to crack down on medical misinformation on the platform. “In the years since we began our efforts to make YouTube a destination for high-quality health content, we’ve learned critical lessons about developing Community Guidelines in line with local and global health authority guidance on topics […]

Aug 15, 2023

Among those spreading medical misinformation during the pandemic: 52 doctors

USA Today Medical misinformation swirled across social media during the pandemic, but some of it was in a class of its own: It came from medical doctors. Doctors, of course, are just as human and error-prone as everyone else, but because they spend years studying science and how the body works, presumably they know more […]

Aug 15, 2023

Report explores doctors spreading COVID misinformation

PBS What happens when doctors spread misinformation during a pandemic, potentially endangering peoples’ lives? A new investigation from The Washington Post looks at why doctors who pushed medical misinformation, particularly about alleged COVID remedies or treatments, faced so few repercussions for their behavior. William Brangham spoke with Lena Sun, one of the lead reporters on […]

Aug 8, 2023

Doctors who put lives at risk with covid misinformation rarely punished

Washington Post A Wisconsin doctor in 2021 prescribed ivermectin, typically used to treat parasitic infections, to two covid-19 patients who later died of the disease. He was fined less than $4,000 — and was free to continue practicing. A Massachusetts doctor has continued practicing without restriction despite being under investigation for more than a year over allegations of […]

Aug 1, 2023

FDA Head Robert Califf Battles Misinformation — Sometimes With Fuzzy Facts

KFF Robert Califf, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, doesn’t seem to be having fun on the job. “I would describe this year as hand-to-hand combat. Really, every day,” he said at an academic conference at Stanford in April. It’s a sentiment the FDA commissioner has expressed often. What’s been getting Califf’s goat? […]

Jul 25, 2023

How COVID Lawsuits and Media Coverage Keep Misinformation Churning

MedPageToday Public health has had its day in court lately. And another day. And another day. Over the course of the pandemic, lawsuits came from every direction, questioning public health policies and hospitals’ authority. Petitioners argued for care to be provided in a different way, they questioned mandates on mask and vaccine use, and they […]

Jul 18, 2023