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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.”   

 


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