Reversing Misinformation: How to Help Your Family, Friends & Community

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About the Book

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Footnotes from Reversing Misinformation: How to Help Your Family, Friends & Community

Introduction

https://www.healthpolcom.com/reversing-misinformation-book-project-2024/

Chapter 1: Understanding Misinformation & Misinformed People

  1. I prefer the terms correct and incorrect (rather than right and wrong) because misinformation is about fiction that is presented as facts. In contrast, the terms right and wrong can be used for moral beliefs and policy positions, such as “eating meat is wrong,” and “taxing the rich is right.”
  2. Estimates are that millions of people in the U.S. have Long-COVID. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/new-studies-estimate-long-covid-rates-identify-risk-factors
  3. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-data-shows-long-covid-is-keeping-as-many-as-4-million-people-out-of-work/
  4. Gallup poll from August 2024 showed that only 26% of Republicans/Republican Leaners think it is Extremely Important to get children vaccinated, compared to 63% of Democrats/Democratic Leaners; and 31% of Republicans/Republican Leaners think “vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent,” compared to 5% of Democrats/Democratic Leaners. Those differences did not exist in 2015. https://news.gallup.com/poll/648308/far-fewer-regard-childhood-vaccinations-important.aspx
  5. Merriam Webster dictionary defines truthiness as “a truthful or seemingly truthful quality that is claimed for something, not because of supporting facts or evidence but because of a feeling that it is true or a desire for it to be true.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truthiness. Truthiness was declared the word of the year in 2005 by the American Dialect Society and in 2006 by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/truthiness-meaning-word-origin & https://www.americandialect.org/truthiness_voted_2005_word_of_the_year
  6. http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html Link apparently inactive – try https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2011-01-05/segment/02 (Accessed 1/19/2025)
  7. The documentary “Shot in the Arm” includes information about how that researcher was paid by lawyers to produce published studies that could be used as the basis for lawsuits on behalf of parents who believed their children were harmed by vaccines. https://shotinthearmmovie.com/ Also see https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6181752/
  8. Autonomy is part of the culture and history of the United States, and can be traced to the idea that the King of England didn’t have the right to tell the colonists what to do. This concept is part of our governments to this day. States and local governments are the primary decision-makers on local matters, with the Federal government taking a secondary role on many issues. In places that have Town Meetings, every voter has the opportunity to be heard, and to vote on matters such as the town’s budget, zoning changes, and other matters.
  9. https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/index.html
  10. Describing certain groups as untrustworthy is a feature of conspiracy theories. The terms “mainstream” and “experts” are often used by spreaders of conspiracy theories to imply that the “others” are part of a conspiracy and their information shouldn’t be trusted.
  11. This book does not specifically address conspiracy theories behind the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Conspiracies theories involve a narrative about powerful, hidden groups seeking to control or manipulate the general population, or to keep some significant “truth” hidden from the public. Conspiracies and misinformation intersect when conspiracy theorists justify their misinformation, as in “Mainstream media isn’t telling people that Ivermectin cures COVID.” While some efforts to reverse people’s belief in conspiracies have been successful, it is unclear whether those efforts reduce people’s belief in the misinformation itself. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/health/chatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html Also, for most conspiracy theories to be true, a large number of people in different organizations would have to keep the “secret” over a long period of time, which is extremely unrealistic.
  12. An acquaintance refused to get the initial COVID-19 vaccine because they are afraid of needles. They missed a significant family event because they were not vaccinated for COVID. Not long after that, they decided to get vaccinated so they could go back to school in person. People can overcome their fear of needles if the outcome is important enough to them.
  13. A possible clue that someone has a fear of needles is if they state different misinformation at different times. For example, they may state that they are not getting vaccinated because they’ve heard vaccines cause fertility issues, but later say it is because they heard that vaccines cause heart problems. While it is possible that they are being hooked on serial pieces of misinformation, it is also possible that they don’t have a firm belief in any one piece of misinformation and are just presenting what they’ve heard most recently so they don’t have to admit their fear of needles.
  14. “Nearly Half of Dog Owners Are Hesitant to Vaccinate Their Pets,” August 31, 2023, https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/nearly-half-of-dog-owners-are-hesitant-to-vaccinate-their-pets/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7877678/
  15. “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science,” September 2023 https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/33293/deadly-rise-anti-science
  16. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/confirmation-bias
  17. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/loss-aversion
  18. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/cognitive-dissonance

Chapter 2: How You Can Reverse Misinformation

  1. This is one of my favorite sayings about how to achieve change. I’ve used it when discussing how changes in health care delivery or financing happen, or why they don’t. I’m not sure where I first heard or read it, and the origins seem murky, but it might have been Steven Covey – or not: https://www.healthinnovationyh.org.uk/blog/change-happens-at-the-speed-of-trust/
  2. This is what happened to a friend who told a group of people he knows well that he had to leave an event to get a COVID booster.
  3. See “Have You Met People? People are Complicated!” in this chapter’s Appendix
  4. “Vaccine Myth-Busting Can Backfire,“ The Atlantic, 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/vaccine-myth-busting-can-backfire/383700/ ”Countering antivaccination attitudes,” PNAS 2015, https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1504019112, and “The limitations of the backfire effect,” Research & Politics, 2017, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053168017716547
  5. Chapter 3 discusses ways to interact with misinformed strangers.
  6. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/report/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-december-2020/
  7. Many people opposed vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic because they viewed the economic effects of the public health measures (such as closing schools and banning public gatherings) as far more harmful than the illness. This reinforced their mistrust of government and the health care system.
  8. The ongoing obesity epidemic has been a challenge for military readiness because it has reduced the number of people able to serve.
  9. Economic Effects of Long COVID Even Larger Than We Thought,” December 13, 2022 – https://jheor.org/post/1746-economic-effects-of-long-covid-even-larger-than-we-thought. And “Long Covid risk has dropped over time but remains substantial, study shows,” July 17, 2024 – https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/health/long-covid-risk/index.html
  10. A friend whose career was spent providing therapy noted that this is similar to the saying “F* the facts, follow the feelings.”
  11. There are also other respiratory infections that people with health conditions or risk factors could (and should) be concerned about, including RSV, influenza, other viruses that cause the common cold, and of course various bacteria that can cause pneumonia etc.
  12. With the end of the Federal Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023, it is uncertain what sorts of vaccine and masking requirements will continue. Companies, organizations, and public venues may require vaccinations or masks. Some colleges and universities may require COVID or flu vaccinations since students are living together in dormitories, just as they may require meningitis vaccinations if there is an outbreak. And in some states, it is a requirement. https://www.cdc.gov/meningococcal/about/risk-community.html Page apparently inactive. Try https://www.cdc.gov/meningococcal/vaccines/index.html, https://www.immunize.org/official-guidance/state-policies/vaccine-requirements/menacwy-college-2024/, and https://www.immunize.org/official-guidance/state-policies/vaccine-requirements/menacwy-school-2024/ (3 links accessed 1/19/2025)
  13. “Baystate Health issues mask mandate as COVID-19 cases rise,” WWLP, August 20, 2024, https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampden-county/baystate-health-issues-mask-mandate-as-covid-19-cases-rise/; “ TCRHCC Reinstates Mask Mandate Amid Rising COVID-19 Cases,” July 19, 2024, https://tchealth.org/tcrhcc-reinstates-mask-mandate-amid-rising-covid-19-cases/; and “California hospital returns to masking as COVID surges,” The Mercury News, July 12, 2024, https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/12/county-increases-testing-ucsd-health-workers-return-to-masking-as-covid-surges/
  14. After the 2019 measles outbreaks, public schools in New York City cracked down on student vaccinations. It was reported that the unvaccinated were primarily in some religious communities, even though the vaccine refusal was not based on the religion itself. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-york-city-vaccination-order-shines-spotlight-on-insular-jewish-community/2019/04/11/fd59b098-5bc3-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html
  15. Members of the military are required to get certain vaccinations.
  16. I know someone who would share all sorts of “health” information on social media, like what types of oils are healthy. Because of their actions, some of the people they trust suggested that their sources were not great, and they should look at snopes.com or check websites like Mayo clinic or WebMD, to verify that what they were sharing was accurate. This resulted in them not sharing as much questionable information.
  17. You may recall this from Chapter 1.
  18. This is a somewhat simplified version of the Ask-Tell-Ask process used by clinicians, and is also referred to as the “Elicit-Provide-Elicit“ process. See “Using motivational interviewing and brief action planning for adopting and maintaining positive health behaviors,” Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033062023000099, and the Centre for Collaboration, Motivation and Innovation’s “Ask-Tell-Ask: An Effective Way to Give Information and Advice, 2018 https://centrecmi.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/12-Ask_Tell_Ask_2018-12-21.pdf
  19. Fortunately, scientists are working to understand what is causing Long-COVID and how to treat it. An additional benefit of their work is that it should help people suffering with other forms of post-infection long-term health problems, like the so-called Chronic Lyme.
  20. Because vaccines, COVID and related issues have become so controversial and fractious, names and locations are not specified.
  21. Structural and systemic racism in the U.S. health care system have been analyzed by various groups, and the COVID-19 pandemic “amplified the harsh reality of health inequities experienced by racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States.” https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01466 and https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/what-structural-racism Health care inequities and bias have been observed at the individual provider level, in financing and reimbursement methods, and in how health care is organized and delivered. There can also be bias in how treatments and diagnostic tests are developed, which can potentially make them less reliable for individuals of certain ethnic and racial groups. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/conceptual-map-structural-racism-health-care, https://www.stkate.edu/academics/healthcare-degrees/racism-in-healthcare, and https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/centers-of-excellence/bioethics-center/about-the-usphs-syphilis-study
  22. George Floyd was a black man killed by police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 after being accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. The four police officers were fired and later convicted and sent to jail for terms ranging from 3 to 22.5 years. https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_George_Floyd
  23. Routine surveillance testing once or twice a week – like some health care and educational institutions did during the pandemic – was not available to the organization.
  24. Cash payment to everyone who got vaccinated was seen as coercive early in the pandemic, so the raffles were held instead. The organization’s commitment to providing incentives continued, with additional $100 raffles for those who had the COVID-19 boosters, and direct $10 payments for getting the COVID-19 boosters, as well as for the flu and RSV vaccinations. (Also see “Challenges of Offering Financial Incentives for Vaccinations” in this Chapter’s Appendix)
  25. This employee did not get vaccinated and left their job.
  26. While there was some evidence of myocarditis in younger males from the mRNA vaccines, the risks of that specific heart issue occurring were greater from COVID-19 than from the vaccine.
  27. This may relate to body autonomy, as the thigh is farther from the head, eyes and heart than the upper arm. Agreeing to receive the injection in an alternate site may also have given E.F. a greater sense of control.

Appendix to Chapter 2

  1. https://fox8.com/news/naked-man-walks-into-vermont-store-buys-coffee/ (Accessed 2/20/2023) https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/police-chief-others-react-to-naked-man-in-downtown-burlington/ (Accessed 2/20/2023)
  2. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hoarding-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20356056 (Accessed 2/20/2023)
  3. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432 (Accessed 2/20/2023)
  4. https://www.lifehack.org/454661/messy-people-have-more-creative-and-productive-minds-science-says, and https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/10/messy-desk (Accessed 2/20/2023)
  5. Fever, headaches, muscle aches may occur after a vaccination. They are signs that the immune system is responding to the vaccine. This insight may be important when talking to people who are hesitant about the vaccine.
  6. https://newbedfordlight.org/new-bedford-announces-walk-up-vaccine-clinics/

Chapter 3: Talking with Misinformed Strangers

  1. “Are people more disrespectful, unkind since the pandemic? Experts say yes and here’s why,” CBS News, 10/23/23 – https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/are-people-more-disrespectful-unkind-since-the-pandemic-experts-say-yes-and-heres-why/; “Public freakouts, burnout, and bullying: Bad behavior is here to stay,” Axios, 9/1/23 – https://www.axios.com/2023/09/01/covid-pandemic-mental-heallth-crisis-public-freakouts; “Americans have forgotten how to behave. And it’s time to stop blaming the pandemic,” LA Times, 8/17/23 – https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-08-17/concerts-movies-airplanes-restaurants-theme-parks-bad-behavior-theory-column; and “Why Can’t People Be Normal in Public Anymore?,” Vice, 2/5/24 – https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvaex/why-are-people-acting-out-in-public
  2. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes. Also see Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/daryl_davis_why_i_as_a_black_man_attend_kkk_rallies?language=en

Chapter 4: Preventing & Reversing Misinformation in Communities

Media Literacy Resources:

Other Links in Chapter:

  1. “Just Do It.” is a trademark of the Nike corporation. https://www.trademarkia.com/blogs/trending/nike-trademark-just-do-it
  2. Perceived correlation is often how a truth nugget will morph into misinformation. People who understand the scientific process also appreciate that an experiment with negative results isn’t a failure – it means you’ve learned something.
  3. Prebunking is related to debunking. Prebunking is taking steps to prevent false statements from taking hold and spreading. Debunking is refuting false statements after they have spread.
  4. “Vaccinating against misinformation” was the title of a panel I was on at the 2021 World Vaccine Congress. I moderated a similar session at the 2022 meeting in Washington, DC.
  5. Retirement communities may not have children or schools. They present a different set of challenges for preventing and reversing misinformation.
  6. Younger people are reportedly getting much of their information from social media. “More Americans – especially young adults – are regularly getting news on TikTok,” Pew Research Center, September 17, 2024 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/17/more-americans-regularly-get-news-on-tiktok-especially-young-adults/ (Accessed October 9, 2024). Only 20 years ago, they were reported to get most of their news from comedy shows, such as the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. “Young Get News from Comedy Central,” CBS News, March 1, 2004 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/young-get-news-from-comedy-central/. As discussed in Chapter 6, content is regulated very differently for those two sources of information.
  7. Note: “Pinterest’s misinformation policy prohibits things like promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses and anti-vaccination advice.” https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/health-misinformation (Accessed June 10, 2024)
  8. In some communities, public-access TV shows can be a way for you to raise awareness of issues and present ideas for positive change. Those outlets generally have low barriers to getting on the air and may be easy to work with.
  9. https://nextdoor.com/
  10. Because rural areas have more direct exposure to agriculture, familiarity with the anti-parasitic deworming medication ivermectin that was – and still is – falsely claimed to be a cure or preventive measure for COVID. “Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid ‘miracle’ drug,” BBC, 10/6/2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58170809, and ”Misinformation, Trust, and Use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19,” JAMA, 9/29/2023 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2809985
  11. I chose public health examples because those are what I know best, but misinformation could be about things like immigration or local zoning changes.
  12. See https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/11/1205016558/canine-vaccine-hesitancy-dogs-rabies and https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-rabies-vaccination-laws
  13. Schools could put in place mask requirements for similar reasons.
  14. As happened at some hospitals at the end of the summer of 2024.
  15. Hat-tip for this nugget to a senior history professor and academic leader.
  16. “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism,” “Preventing the Next Pandemic,” and “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science” – https://peterhotez.org/book/, and https://www.amazon.com/Books-Peter-Hotez/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3APeter+Hotez
  17. https://shotinthearmmovie.com/
  18. “Over Half of States Have Rolled Back Public Health Powers in Pandemic,” KFF News, September 15, 2021 – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/over-half-of-states-have-rolled-back-public-health-powers-in-pandemic/. “Trends in US State Public Health Emergency Laws, 2021–2022,” American Journal of Public Health, February 15, 2023 – https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307214
  19. https://www.safecommunitiescoalition.org/chapters
  20. https://secure.everyaction.com/ZmaW9hZNd0yFrRXZgxxLPw2

Chapter 5: Election & Climate Change Misinformation

  1. Fake news was the Collins’ dictionary Word of the Year in 2017 – https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41838386
  2. Talking about elections and politics with co-workers in the workplace or at work events may not be acceptable according to your organization’s policies.
  3. For example, former U.S. Congressman George Santos (R-NY) apparently disseminated many fictional accounts of his life and accomplishments. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23520848/george-santos-fake-resume
  4. One attempt to legitimize political misinformation was to label it as “alternative facts.” https://theconversation.com/alternative-facts-do-exist-beliefs-lies-and-politics-84692
  5. “Misinformation floods social media in wake of breakneck news cycle,” The Hill, July 28, 2024 – https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4795180-misinformation-trump-biden-harris-2024/
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories
  7. This was reported to have been from a candidate in 1950 during a U.S. Senate primary election in Florida. https://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/editorials/gumball-grading-highlights-pettiness-of-political-discourse/article_d2812b29-9459-5eef-98c5-a820d5f50a1b.html
  8. The rise in the popularity of the ACA has also likely reduced the value of attacking it during campaigns. https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/poll-finding/5-charts-about-public-opinion-on-the-affordable-care-act/
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_panel & https://www.kff.org/from-drew-altman/what-death-panels-can-teach-us-about-health-misinformation/
  10. Note: In 2016 Medicare began paying for that type of counseling. This was done through regulation rather than legislation, and “advance care planning” is covered as part of the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. https://www.kff.org/medicare/fact-sheet/10-faqs-medicares-role-in-end-of-life-care/, and https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/advance-care-planning
  11. https://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article/40/5/1087/13766/The-Remarkable-Staying-Power-of-Death-Panels, and https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/12/death-panels-obit-213481/
  12. Those same organizations could be motivated to spread political misinformation in order to sway elections toward a candidate they believe would favor them if elected. This is sometimes referred to as “election interference.”
  13. See Chapter 2 for description of altruistic spreaders.
  14. Sometimes stating the obvious helps illuminate a complicated landscape.
  15. The 2024 Presidential election in Venezuela may be a case study of an attempt to steal an election.
  16. https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/
  17. https://climateandsecurity.org/2020/08/climate-change-in-russia-and-the-weaponization-of-wheat/ and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/16/magazine/russia-climate-migration-crisis.html
  18. https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/climate-change-described-hoax-louisiana-attorney-general-0 and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2020.1855884
  19. “Phase-out of incandescent bulbs,” Wikipedia (Accesses 10/10/24) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_incandescent_light_bulbs, “Debunking Myths about Phasing Out the Incandescent Lightbulb,” Department of Energy 8/11/23 (Accessed 10/10/24) https://www.energy.gov/articles/debunking-myths-about-phasing-out-incandescent-lightbulb, and “Why Republicans are fighting to save the 30-cent light bulb,” Christian Science Monitor, 7/11/2011 https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0711/Why-Republicans-are-fighting-to-save-the-30-cent-light-bulb
  20. Tourist locations based in coastal areas may be threatened by rising sea levels, and mountain locations may have their tourism threatened by reduced snowfall, or increased rain leading to flooding.

Chapter 6: Social Media & Misinformation

Additional Resources

  1. Lyrics from the song Strawberry Fields by John Lennon (1967)
  2. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-cybersecurity/2023/09/11/influence-campaign-spread-during-maui-wildfires-00114944, and https://www.mediamatters.org/hurricanes/hurricane-milton-grows-so-do-conspiracy-theories-falsely-attributing-hurricanes-weather
  3. “FEMA chief decries rumors, disinformation about hurricane recovery as worst ever,” 10/8/2024 https://alabamareflector.com/2024/10/08/fema-chief-decries-rumors-disinformation-about-hurricane-recovery-as-worst-ever/, and “Bizarre Falsehoods About Hurricanes Helene and Milton Disrupt Recovery Efforts,” 10/10/2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/business/media/hurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html
  4. News websites often have similar capabilities, and often allow their audience to share links to the content on multiple social media platforms.
  5. Magoo was a fictional cartoon character created in the late 1940s. Wearing very thick glasses (because he was extremely myopic) was one of his key characteristics. Another was his refusing to admit the existence of any problems – many of which were caused by his poor eyesight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Magoo The copyright to the character seems to be currently owned by DreamWorks Classics, a division of Comcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Productions_of_America
  6. https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204533569-What-are-communities-or-subreddits
  7. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/?tabItem=5b319c90-7363-4881-8e6f-f98925683a2f and https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/ (Accessed 9/29/24)
  8. https://khoros.com/resources/social-media-demographics-guide
  9. “Young Get News from Comedy Central,” CBS News, March 1, 2004 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/young-get-news-from-comedy-central/
  10. “More Americans – especially young adults – are regularly getting news on TikTok,” Pew Research Center, September 17, 2024 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/17/more-americans-regularly-get-news-on-tiktok-especially-young-adults/ (Accessed October 9, 2024)
  11. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/02/08/twitter-boosts-character-limit-to-4000-for-twitter-blue-subscribers/, and https://circleboom.com/blog/how-to-tweet-more-than-280-characters-on-twitter/
  12. https://em360tech.com/tech-article/what-happened-to-myspace
  13. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-bypass-system-hoax/
  14. https://www.snopes.com/
  15. https://medialiteracynow.org/about/mission/
  16. See places listed here: https://thetrustedweb.org/organizations-leading-the-fight-against-fake-news/
  17. An executive I know at a print publication – which of course has a website and significant social media presence – is considering deleting one of the publication’s social media accounts because of the amount of misinformation spreading on that platform.
  18. How to report misinformation to social media platforms so they (might) take it down can be found here: https://counterhate.com/blog/how-to-report-misinformation-on-social-media/
  19. Pinterest’s policy states “Pinterest’s misinformation policy prohibits things like promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses and anti-vaccination advice.” https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/health-misinformation (Accessed June 10, 2024)
  20. “Understanding Section 230 – Social Media Companies’ Get Out of Jail Free Card,” May 17, 2024 – https://counterhate.com/blog/understanding-section-230-social-media-companies-get-out-of-jail-free-card/, “These 26 words ‘created the internet.’ Now the Supreme Court may be coming for them,” 2/18/2023 https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/18/tech/section-230-explainer/index.html, “Section 230: An Overview,” Congressional Research Service (Published 5/3/2023 and Updated 1/4/2024), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46751
  21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjzRbgxZXz8
  22. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en
  23. “Judge lifts suspension of X in Brazil after it meets court’s demands,” Washington Post, 10/8/2024 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/08/brazilian-judge-lifts-suspension-x-after-it-cedes-courts-demands/ (Accessed 10/9/24)
  24. “The mass unbanning of suspended Twitter users is underway,” CNN.com December 8, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/tech/twitter-unbanned-users-returning/index.html, “Twitter’s Moderation System Is in Tatters,” Wired, November 17, 2022 https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-moderation-system-is-in-tatters/, and “Twitter Fires Election Integrity Team Ahead of 2024 Elections,” Rolling Stoner, September 27, 2023 https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/twitter-elon-musk-fires-safety-team-2024-elections-1234832199/ (Accessed October 9, 2024)
  25. You can find your Member of Congress here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member Each member has a website with information about how to contact them.
  26. “Senate passes the most significant child online safety bills in decades,” July 30, 2024 (Accessed 11/3/2024) https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-poised-pass-significant-child-online-safety-bills-decades-rcna164259
  27. “Newsom Signs Bill That Adds Protections for Children on Social Media,” The New York Times, September 21, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/us/newsom-children-social-media-bill.html (Accessed 10/9/24)
  28. Most people don’t realize that the FDA has to approve the names of medicines. For example, a new medicine to treat cancer most certainly couldn’t be named “Cancer-Be-Gone.” This is not an infringement on the pharmaceutical company’s first amendment rights since this is commercial “speech” rather than personal speech.
  29. According to the FCC, “Caller ID spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity.” https://www.fcc.gov/spoofing#
  30. Note: The owner of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is reportedly engaged in significant legal action against CCDH because of CCDH’s articles about misinformation being spread on X. https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191318468/elon-musk-sues-disinformation-researchers-claiming-they-are-driving-away-adverti, and https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-x-corp-loses-lawsuit-against-hate-speech-watchdog-2024-03-25/

Chapter 7: Artificial Intelligence & Misinformation

  1. Albert Einstein reportedly said “In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not,” Immanuel Kant reportedly said “Theory without practice is empty; practice without theory is blind,” and Yogi Berra – perhaps one of the greatest modern philosophers and creators of tortured English prose – reportedly said, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice – in practice there is.”
  2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14639238909010878
  3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8621186/
  4. This type of MLAI is also sometimes referred to as “adaptive” since it is continually adapting to new data and information it encounters.
  5. Government Accountability Office. (2022, November 10). Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: Benefits and Challenges of Machine Learning Technologies for Medical Diagnostics. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104629
  6. “Feedback Loops and Model Contamination: The AI Ouroboros Crisis,” August 24, 2024 (Accessed 10-14-2024) https://sease.io/2024/08/feedback-loops-and-model-contamination-the-ai-ouroboros-crisis.html
  7. “’Grandparent’ Scams Get More Sophisticated,” Updated Feb. 1, 2024,“ (Accessed 10/16/24) https://www.fcc.gov/grandparent-scams-get-more-sophisticated
  8. “Scammers use AI to enhance their family emergency schemes,” March 23, 2023 (Accessed 10/16/2024) https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes
  9. https://web.archive.org/web/20190319183107/https://www.whitehouse.gov/ai/executive-order-ai/
  10. https://ai.gov/
  11. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/senate-hearing-highlights-ai-harms-and-need-for-tougher-regulation/, and https://www.c-span.org/video/?530327-1/hearingon-regulatingartificial-intelligence#
  12. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/
  13. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/
  14. https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/
  15. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/
  16. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-releases-artificial-intelligencemachine-learning-action-plan, https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/marketing-submission-recommendations-predetermined-change-control-plan-artificial, and https://www.mintz.com/insights-center/viewpoints/2791/2021-10-04-coverage-fdas-aiml-medical-devices-workshop-part-1
  17. Chat GPT4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini 1.5 with Flash, MS Copilot, and perplexity.ai, (accessed October 10, 2024)
  18. These queries could have gone into greater detail by asking the AIs to compare their findings about how to prevent or spread misinformation to what other AIs recommended. But because AI evolves so fast, the answers would quickly have become outdated.
  19. See notes from the same quote at the beginning of this chapter.
  20. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/technology/europe-ai-regulation.html, and https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-eu-and-us-diverge-on-ai-regulation-a-transatlantic-comparison-and-steps-to-alignment/
  21. See the assimilation philosophy of the human-computer hybrid race Borg in the fictional series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg
  22. The sentient computer system in “2001: A Space Odyssey” refuses to open the space ship’s outer doors to allow the reentry of the manned space pod. https://news.wjct.org/2023-07-31/open-the-pod-bay-door-hal-heres-how-ai-became-a-movie-villain and https://blog.shi.com/next-generation-infrastructure/open-the-pod-bay-doors-hal-whats-your-relationship-with-ai/
  23. https://www.starwars.com/databank/death-star
  24. https://www.britannica.com/topic/red-pill-and-blue-pill

A Few Final Words

www.healthpolcom.com/reversing-misinformation-book-project-2024/


How to Buy the Book (and Why)

The book became available in mid-January, 2025 and can be ordered here: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=xzqL3NGf11gmTxyp4I0hfj2j5bSTp565zk982XD6OqZ

To receive updates about the book – or inquire about getting a signed copy or in-person (or virtual) readings and talks – please email RevMisinfo@HealthPolCom.com

    • Help yourself – and people you know – have better conversations at family, holiday and work events. Better discussions with misinformed people will reduce friction in relationships and start to undo misinformation about important things like vaccines, elections and climate change.


About the Author

Dr. Miller is an expert in health care communications, policy, and advocacy. He has decades of experience improving access to and affordability of innovations, and coaching people to communicate effectively about complex issues. During the pandemic he focused on vaccine misinformation, and helped groups and individuals understand the science of vaccines, the human immune system, and COVID-19. He continues to manage the Scientific Advisory Board for a vaccine advocacy non-profit. Dr. Miller is a graduate of Williams College and Yale School of Medicine

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