Category: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
Teaching People to Counter Misinformation, Not Just Spot It
Carnegie Mellon Univ Can we train people to speak up when they see misinformation on social media? Most media literacy research efforts focus on training people to identify true from false information. However, learning to recognize accurate information doesn’t automatically help stop inaccurate information from spreading online. Many of us have seen false or misleading […]
Jan 28, 2026
Vaccine myths that won’t die and how to counter them—part 1
CIDRAP In consulting rooms across America, physicians face a challenge that no medical school prepared them for. A parent arrives with a list of concerns gathered from social media, podcasts, and well-meaning friends. The questions sound scientific. The language borrows from immunology. The citations reference real studies. And yet the conclusions are wrong. These parents […]
Jan 21, 2026
Vaccination in the Age of Memes: An Exploration of Digital Health
PubMed This study explores how internet memes serve as digital communication tools in public health discourse, influencing public perceptions by spreading both accurate and misleading health information. Utilizing a dual qualitative approach, Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), this study examined 99 vaccine-related memes shared online during the 2019 and 2025 measles […]
Jan 14, 2026
Rise of anti-science rhetoric has fundamentally changed the relationship between doctors and patients
STAT I have spent my career caring for people facing some of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases — Ebola, mpox, Covid-19. I have worked in outbreak zones, in understaffed hospitals, in field units built out of necessity. I’ve seen firsthand how vaccines transform the trajectory of a disease, a community, and a country. But […]
Dec 10, 2025
South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak Shows Chilling Effect of Vaccine Misinformation
Kaiser Health News Near the back corner of the local library’s parking lot, largely out of view from the main road, the South Carolina Department of Public Health opened a pop-up clinic in early November, offering free measles vaccines to adults and children. Spartanburg County, in South Carolina’s Upstate region, has been fighting a measles […]
Nov 26, 2025
Navigating vaccine misinformation with a pediatrician
NPR The CDC recently rewrote its vaccine guidance to suggest shots might cause autism, renewing false claims about vaccines and causing anxiety among parents. Physicians often deal with misinformation, but the difference is that it’s now coming from the federal government. How do families know what guidance to trust? NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with Dr. […]
Nov 26, 2025
How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office
Wired Every day, physicians and therapists work to keep their patients safe. Medical rumors, misinformation, and an online web of disreputable sources aren’t making their jobs any easier. As anyone who has googled their symptoms and convinced themselves that they’ve got a brain tumor will attest, the internet makes it very easy to self-(mis)diagnose your […]
Nov 12, 2025
How to Spot Medical Misinformation on Social Media and Determine What’s Trustworthy
Healthline Always fact-check health claims and trends on social media with what trustworthy sources are saying on the topic. Medical misinformation can have dangerous effects for you and others. Because health content on social media is typically delivered in a conversational tone, it can sometimes feel like listening to advice from a friend. But it’s […]
Oct 22, 2025
6 Reasons Why People Believe Health Misinformation
Psychology Today Reasons 1 and 2: Mistrust of Experts and Personal Autonomy Almost everyone has had at least one bad experience with the health care system—particularly in the United States, where both insurance and health care delivery lack consistency and coordination. And historically, certain groups—such as women and people of color—have faced discrimination and inequities in health […]
Oct 15, 2025
Fighting the Pandemic of Misinformation
The Hospitalist On November 28, 2021, scrolling through Twitter, I came across a tweet by @SailingKateMD: “Checked my ICU list after being gone for a few days for the holiday…Every single one of my COVID-19 patients died while I was gone. All of them.”1 It was my third year as an attending hospitalist. The world […]
Oct 1, 2025