Health Disinformation &

Science & Society Health disinformation & social media The crucial role of information hygiene in mitigating conspiracy theory and infodemics David Robert Grimes1,2,* he satirist Johnathan Swift once linking 5G communications to COVID-19 army of healthcare workers using them lamented that “falsehood flies, and saw cell towers torched by arsonists. But without ill-effect has been no impediment to T truth comes limping after it”. Penned falsehoods about radiofrequency are not the propagation of such myths. These are three centuries ago, these words seem new—current assertions about ostensible not insubstantial gatherings. August saw alarmingly prescient: The paradox of the era harms of 5G are simply recycled from prior more than 17,000 protestors take to the we live in is that, despite having access to scaremongering about cell-phones, WiFi and streets of Berlin alone, with thousands more an enormous amount of information at our powerlines, and bereft of any substance in London, Dublin, Madrid, and elsewhere. fingertips, this same freedom allows poiso- (Grimes & Bishop 2018). But while the humble mask might be the nous fictions to aggressively perpetuate. In And while this might be a novel coron- ostensible focal point, the astute observer the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this avirus, the conspiracy theories flaunted cannot fail to notice the banners replete with has manifested as a parallel crisis of infor- around it are anything but long before all manner of health conspiracy, ranging mation—in the words of the WHO, we are YouTube cranks insisted COVID-19 was a from assertions that the virus is a hoax to experiencing “an overabundance of informa- man-made virus, claims that AIDS was a the claim we are being microchipped by tion, some accurate and some not, that CIA bioweapon gained traction in the 1980s. vaccine manufacturers or Bill Gates (Fig 1). makes it hard for people to find trustworthy On this latter point, the fingerprints of ...................................................... sources and reliable guidance when they Russian and Chinese disinformation under- need it”. In this, the first pandemic we face pinning current Coronavirus myths have “..., the rise of “anti-mask” in the social media era, we are glimpsing the historical echoes; at the height of the AIDs protests has seen disparate rise of a shadow problem—an “infodemic”, crisis, Soviet intelligence invested heavily in groups from anti-vaccine acti- the dissemination of disinformation across amplifying the claims the disease was an vists to 5G protesters to alter- social media. American weapon. This undertaking, the ...................................................... notorious operation INFEKTION, was ulti- native health advocates unite mately derailed when the pandemic swept ......................................................under a single banner.” “In this, the first pandemic we the USSR, forcing Russia to seek help from face in the social media era, American virologists. Such a spectacular we are glimpsing the rise of a volte-face underpins an inescapable truth: The grand health conspiracy shadow problem—an “info- Reality does not care one iota for our narratives. And despite being debunked for In normal times, it is easy to dismiss health demic”...” ...................................................... decades, the myth still maintains significant conspiracies as a phenomenon confined traction. solely to the fringes, inconsequential for More recently, the rise of “anti-mask” most of us. But the sheer dominance of The viral nature of disinformation protests has seen disparate groups from anti- disinformation in science and medicine vaccine activists to 5G protesters to alterna- should disabuse us of the comfortable Claims of dubious veracity frequently go tive health advocates unite under a single notion; this is something we can disregard— viral on the internet. This pathogenic alle- banner. Lockdown restrictions are the chief and that this has been a serious issue long gory for modern information is not idly target of their ire. Masks, they claim, lead to before the emergence of COVID-19. This is made. We all too frequently act as vectors oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide perhaps most stark when we consider the for fictions, which can cause societal harm. poisoning. That this is easily refuted by resurgence in vaccine-preventable illness. In In the UK and beyond, conspiracy theories simple measurement or by observing the 2000, measles was declared eradicated in 1 School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland 2 Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK *Corresponding author. Emails: [email protected]; [email protected] DOI 10.15252/embr.202051819 | EMBO Reports (2020) 21:e51819 ª 2020 The Author. Published under the terms of the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license EMBO reports 21:e51819 | 2020 1 of 4 EMBO reports David Robert Grimes 12% Water fluoridation is a conspiracy to dump chemical waste in water 12% GMOs are a plot to control the world population 12% The CIA deliberately infected people with AIDS 15% COVID-19 is caused by 5G radio-frequency 19% Will refuse the coronavirus vaccine if/when it is available 20% Vaccines cause autism and other disorder which doctors cover up 20% Cell phones cause cancer and the government cover it up 29% COVID-19 was manufactured in a laboratory 37% The FDA is suppressing a cancer cure to protect pharma profits 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% © EMBO © Respondents agreeing with statement Figure 1. Commonly encountered conspiratorial beliefs in medicine. Estimated proportion of population subscribing to common medical conspiracy theories. Based on data from Oliver and Wood (2014) and surveys from the Université de Sherbrooke (https://www.usherbrooke.ca/actualites/relations-medias/communiques/communiques-details/c/42738/) and the Pew Research Center (https://www.pewresea rch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/24/a-look-at-the-americans-who-believe-there-is-some-truth-to-the-conspiracy-theory-that-covid-19-was-planned/). the USA. Twenty years later, the situation frequently avoid immunisation. Even now, as than twice as likely to die in the same period has deteriorated alarmingly, with record researchers try to derive a vaccine for the as those relying on conventional therapies outbreaks recorded around the country. In novel coronavirus, anti-vaccine campaigners (Johnson et al, 2018). The dark irony is that 2018, Europe recorded 84,462 cases, up have already begun to spread falsehoods such conspiratorial narratives induce an from only 5,273 cases in 2016. suggesting that trial participants are dying. inherent distrust of conventional medicine, ...................................................... The dark renaissance of conquerable providing a cloak for charlatans to operate diseases is accordingly symptomatic of a under. Some common reasons for the perpet- “...the sheer dominance of deeper problem: The triumph of emotive fic- uation of health conspiracy are given in Box. disinformation in science and tions over reality. False narratives have an alluring simplicity for believers, but they do medicine should disabuse us of Box 1. Some motivations for perpetuat- substantial harm; the staggering popularity ing health conspiracy the comfortable notion this is of false or unsubstantiated cancer cures is something we can but one example. Social media is rife with Epistemic: Health conspiracies offer simple ... narratives for complex phenomena and disregard ” dubious claims: In 2016, more than half of provide a perverse sense of security against ...................................................... the 20 most shared articles about cancer on uncertainty for believers (Douglas et al, Facebook involved medically discredited 2017). A similar cocktail of scaremongering claims. Purveyors of false remedies accuse Egotistic: More narcissistic individuals are claims spread about the HPV vaccine in Japan the medical and scientific community of more likely to be conspiracy theorists, and the illusion of special knowledge rendering saw uptake collapse from 70 to 1% in suppressing cures for cancer, despite this one superior to others can be alluring months, a deplorable situation estimated to being totally implausible (Grimes, 2016). (Douglas et al, 2017; Imhoff & Lamberty, cost upwards of 11,000 lives (Simms et al, This sadly cannot be dismissed a mere fringe 2017). 2020). Anti-vaccine propaganda also mark- belief: A staggering 37% of Americans Political: Some health conspiracies have edly pushed down rates in Denmark and believe the FDA is doing precisely this. political dimension, when their propagation is deemed damaging to an enemy power Ireland, a situation only being reversed in the These claims of alternative treatments are by undermining public trust. latter country thanks to Herculean efforts by at best useless, but they do harm far beyond patient advocates, scientists, and physicians. their intrinsic lack of efficacy. When effective Exposure to ubiquitous online anti-vaccine interventions such as radiotherapy and conspiracy theories has, perhaps unsurpris- chemotherapy are dismissed as “poisons” Availability heuristics, illusory truth, ingly, substantial impact on parental intention and alternative or unsubstantiated treat- and dubious amplification to vaccine (Jolley & Douglas, 2014): Faced ments touted in their stead, it comes at terri- with a plethora of worrying claims and ble cost. Evidence suggests patients who It is crucial to note that this is problem

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