A new study published Tuesday accused many doctors of spreading COVID-19 misinformation on social media, despite the claims that are referred to as misinformation being heavily contested.
The study, which was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association and funded through internal support at the University of Massachusetts, studied online posts by doctors which the researchers claimed spread “misinformation,” such as skepticism about the effectiveness of mask use and claims concerning the idea that COVID-19 originated in a lab and was funded, according to the study. The study advocated for “ethical and legal guidelines for propagation of misinformation” in order to prevent harm that could be caused by physicians who spread misinformation.
“This misinformation category included conspiracy theories related to domestic and foreign governments and pharmaceutical companies,” the study reads. Included as types of misinformation were claims that “the virus originated in a laboratory in China, which contradicted scientific evidence at the time,” and that “the virus was part of a National Institutes of Health–funded study, was leaked, and that the leak was covered up by government and public health officials.”The study was conducted from January 2021 to December 2022, and studied misinformation that was believed to not be true at the time.
Misinformation kills.
— Dr. Jonathan N. Stea (@jonathanstea) August 15, 2023
52 American physicians actively spread Covid-19 misinformation to millions of people on social media about vaccines, masks, and conspiracies.
One third of the more than 1,100,000 Covid-19-related deaths as of January 18 2023 were preventable if public… pic.twitter.com/AZIeZXcqqS
