I applaud efforts at stopping harmful misinformation, but, I'm sorry but there is a lot of top-down misinformation as well. Who's judging? We had months of many journalists from high-prestige sources arguing what-about-the-flu with those of us who were trying to raise the alarm.
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Folks, think about the last two months. Rethink assumptions. Misinformation is not just the problem of "other" people who believe, say, in aromatherapy for COVID-19. There are many kinds of misinformation. We had massive amounts of top-down misinformation from "credible" sources.
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What if I didn't have access to the NYT? I don't think people have digested the depth of dis/misinformation that was out there for months. Some societies leapt to action despite government intransigience—ours did not. There are multiple failures here. https://twitter.com/mykfmn/status/1240663099553742849 …
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I wish, wish, wish the problem was "easy-to-identify misinformation there" versus "credible authorities here". If that were the problem, we wouldn't be facing all this. The authorities have to learn how to earn credibility, but first, they have to see & admit their own problems.
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Anyway lemme get back to trying to write more of this long-form.
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Just putting the mask oped and thread with the debate here. I was scared to write this. I expected big pushback. Instead, I got medical folks from all over contacting me privately and thanking me for saying the obvious—in contradiction to CDC and WHO line.https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1239903421970501640 …
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Yep. Part of the reason that the pandemic has engulfed Europe, and is now creeping up in the United States is the authorities *and* a substantial chunks of "credible" media failed us. It's a terrible situation. Let's not pretend otherwise.https://twitter.com/miroirdufou/status/1240670344580603904 …
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Here's my January 29 thread. By then, we knew what we needed to know to IMMEDIATELY act. We knew "what about the flu" was plain stupid—but many in media kept telling us that. We knew of asymptomatic transmission—thus universal mask wearing was smart. Yet.https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1222652819179634688 …
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January 29. China swung from denial and censorship to *massive* action. NEJM paper comes out with everything we need to know. For the next month, Western governments practically sit on their hands, pundits lecture us about the flu, and CDC/WHO says don't wear masks. Yeah, angry.pic.twitter.com/reQFIbzjAw
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But as we have seen, established news sources can in fact be primary sources of misinformation, whereas individual accounts from certified professionals can be sources of real critical info not otherwise covered. Failure to admit this is complicated is going to kill us.
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