“everybody’s saying that you shouldn’t get vaxed because there’s something in the vaccinations that the government wants in your body so they can follow you everywhere and control you,” she said.
that all changed when her husband was transferred to the grey nuns community hospital in edmonton on sunday.
“it sounds so stupid now,” carla added.
timothy caulfield, a university of alberta professor and canada research chair in health law and policy, warns that the volume and character of online misinformation makes it easy for almost anyone to get sucked in. actors in this field, he explained, are adept at appealing to people’s fears, concerns, values and sometimes even their better judgment.
“those pushing misinformation are very good at making it seem scientifically legit,” caulfield said. “they refer to studies and they use sciency language, and it can be very, very persuasive.”
however, he added, studies show that efforts to debunk misinformation online are proving effective, and initiatives like scienceupfirst, a collective of scientists, researchers and health-care experts, are working to counter false information about covid-19.
“it’s specifically designed to tackle misinformation where it resides, and we know — research tells us — that this is largely, not entirely, but largely a social media phenomenon,” he said. “so we’re trying to create content that’s relevant to all canadians, and that works across all social media platforms.”