2023-08-27 05:07:32
A new study revealed that “52 American doctors shared misinformation” regarding the Corona epidemic, on social media and other online platforms, including claiming that “most of those who took Covid-19 vaccines will die by 2025.”
And researchers in the field of public health from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that “doctors in various medical specialties are spreading false information regarding vaccines and treatments for the Corona virus and the feasibility of social divergence,” and that some of them reach “large audiences,” according to the website.Science Alert Scientific.
“This study is the first, to our knowledge, to identify the types of misinformation regarding COVID-19 that American doctors spread on social media and the platforms they used,” researcher Sahana Soli and colleagues wrote in their study.
The wrong medical information existed long before the emergence of the new Corona virus, but its alarming spread during the epidemic exacerbated the consequences of the health crisis, which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 15 million people around the world, according to previous estimates by the World Health Organization.
A double-edged sword… Fears of a “pandemic of fake news” with the development of artificial intelligence
On Friday, the World Health Organization celebrates World Health Day, which also marks the 75th anniversary of its founding, and following the organization has dealt with great challenges in light of the Corona pandemic during the past two years, it is now facing a pandemic of another kind linked to “misinformation”.
The authors say that regarding one-third of the more than one million COVID-19-related deaths in the United States by January 2023 might have been prevented had public health recommendations been followed.
Sully and her team identified media used from 2021 and early 2022 that contained “misinformation” regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) attributed to physicians residing in the United States.
The study revealed that the 52 doctors are spread across 29 states, explaining that Twitter (currently the X platform) was the most popular platform for spreading such news, as 37 doctors delivered misleading information through the site to a total of more than 9 million followers.
The 20 misinformation regarding COVID-19 was also posted on 5 or more other social media platforms, as well as many online news outlets.
Online misinformation was measured in 4 categories: medicines, vaccines, masks and social distancing, and other unverified or false claims.
Most doctors who shared misinformation did so in “more than one” of the categories listed.
Most notable “allegations”
Among the unfounded claims that “COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility, damage to the immune system, and chronic diseases in children, not to mention cancer.”
Also, the drugs “ivermectin” and “hydroxychloroquine” were widely promoted, although randomized clinical trials found them ineffective in treating “Covid-19”, and therefore the US Food and Drug Administration did not approve their use for this purpose.
Other misinformation included conspiracy theories regarding the “pandemic” and that “government and public health officials withheld important information, inflated statistics to make the virus appear worse, or censored information if it did not match official advice.”
With no US federal laws on medical misinformation on social media, many members of the public may have difficulty assessing the accuracy of the news provided to them.
But why do some doctors provide such false information? The study answers by saying that “understanding the motives requires further investigation,” but the researchers note that “spreading such misleading rumors has become a lucrative industry.”
They pointed out that “many front-line doctors in America have reaped no less than $15 million by prescribing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat Covid-19 through telemedicine, with the value of one consultation reaching $90.”
It should be noted that the study was conducted following social media platforms began deleting misinformation, so it may not point to all of the medical misinformation that once existed.
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