New Center To Study The “Epidemiology Of Misinformation”
“Vaccines…the more you
KNOW, the more you NO!
This slogan was
created to help block Washington State from revoking the option for
parents to claim a philosophical exemption to vaccination The slogan
is one local example of the spread of misinformation and a threat to
public health. Another very current vaccine example is the rejection
of polio vaccination by parents in Pakistan which is threatening the
success of the worldwide polio eradication effort.
Partnership
The University of
Washington (UW) and the State University of Washington have created a
statewide partnership to study “the epidemiology of misinformation”
and combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation. This is to
be accomplished by creating
an interdisciplinary
Center for an Informed Public in the information school at UW.
According to UW
President Ana Mari Cauce, “If we care about common
goals---things like safe communities, justice, equal opportunity---we
have to care also about facts, truth, and accuracy… Misinformation can
be weaponized. It has been weaponized to divide us and to weaken us.”
Health Matter
In an earlier article
from the University of Washington Information School, Jevin West
the inaugural director of the new Center said “the reason we want
to devote a lot of effort and thinking to this is that it’s involved
with every aspect of society…You can’t solve climate change until you
solve the information problem. You can’t solve human health issues
until you solve the information integrity issue.”
Toxic Speech
The initiative in
Washington state is somewhat reminiscent of a call for the study of
“the epidemiology of toxic speech” which was described in the February
2018 issue of The Epidemiology Monitor:
http://bit.ly/38jYGQ4
In an interview with the University of
Connecticut’s Lynne Tirrell, she told the Monitor “Toxic
speech, like any toxin, is a threat to the well-being and even the
very lives of those against who it is deployed…Thinking in
epidemiological terms highlights that toxic speech is a community
problem in need of social solutions.”
■
|