Category: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
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
The Straw-Man Argument Against California’s COVID Misinfo Law
MedPageToday An article in the South Carolina Post and Courier in early 2022 recounts how a patient levied grave accusations against his physician. The doctor was accused of persistently trivializing the dangers of COVID, recommending hydroxychloroquine as treatment, and purportedly alleging that the vaccines were concocted as a sinister plot to thin the global population. The patient, still […]
Jul 11, 2023
Meta is rolling back its covid-19 misinformation rules in the US
The Verge Meta is rolling back its covid misinformation rules in countries like the US, where the pandemic’s national emergency status has been rescinded as recommended by its independent oversight board in April of this year, The Washington Post reported Friday morning (via Engadget). In an update to the July announcement that it asked the Meta Oversight Board to investigate the safety of doing […]
Jun 20, 2023