Resources I wish I'd had years ago for debunking vax & other conspiracy theories: downloadable links...
I hope this is okay to cross-post here. I put it in GD first, but things can get lost over there.
Resources I wish I'd had years ago for debunking vax & other conspiracy theories: downloadable links...
This is from a great article today by Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times. Never mind the link unless you have a subscription, but the meat of it for me is that various organizations have written booklets/manuals on how to rebut, prebut, and educate people who have fallen or may soon fall down the rabbit hole.
Counteracting political lies about science
Johns Hopkins, Yale and others are offering researchers playbooks on how to combat disinformation.
In recent years, disinformation has seemed to be on an inexorable march across the scientific and medical landscape.
Prominent politicians, up to and including the former president, have promoted useless drugs as supposed cures for COVID-19. Partisan attacks on the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines have expanded into attacks on all vaccines. Established scientific and medical authorities have been vilified on social media and on the airwaves and even been subjected to physical assault.
The sheer volume of lies and misrepresentations injected into the political mainstream has some scientists despairing of ever regaining the public’s attention.
“Scientists really recognize this as a problem, from what they see in the community and read in the news,” says Tara Kirk Sell of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. “They see the problems they have from misinformation and disinformation on the public health side and in the medical field and in other areas. They want to figure out how to deal with it. We’re providing…
Sell’s reference is to the “Practical Playbook for Addressing Health Misinformation” just released by her center. The 65-page publication amounts to a road map for identifying misinformation and disinformation and applying the best strategies for counteracting it before it spreads..
https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/24-02-14-cdc-misinfo-playbook_0.pdf
UNICEF, the Yale Institute for Global Health and other organizations published one of the earliest such guides in late 2020, aimed specifically at anti-vaccine misinformation.
https://vaccinemisinformation.guide/
Others have the broader goal of fighting conspiracy theories in general.
https://skepticalscience.com/docs/ConspiracyTheoryHandbook.pdf
One recommendation that most seem to have in common is to take a strategic approach: Disinformation campaigns can’t be defeated by ad hoc measures; they require an organized, proactive and targeted approach mounted by credible defenders of science.
For what it’s worth, link to LATimes, page A2, 2-25-2024
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?token=42e23962a5d74614be16bae3d62d13e7&sfmc_id=6532a30f25b3640666bed99d&utm_id=34465635&skey_id=f0185674dd52c0ccd4b79cadf4d6840cd74dca950f70382e51f3c73188047081&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ENP-email-Subs-eNewspaper-2024225&utm_term=eNewspaper+Daily+Notify&edid=bfe96f70-c429-48c9-87cb-514087918ad7
= new reply since forum marked as read
