Posted on 02/17/2024 6:55:30 AM PST by DoodleBob
“Well over 300,000 Americans are in graveyards today because of the misinformation, the doubt, the suspicion, the distrust that caused them to say that vaccine is not safe for me. And it continues,” Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health said in September 2022, citing a KFF estimate.
Disinformation not only continues but it’s getting worse. Public trust is declining due to social media, and increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI). As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, distrust can lead to preventable deaths.
Last month, the Florida Surgeon General called for a halt to COVID-19 vaccines, saying they can cause permanent harm. The FDA and CDC refuted his claim, but the harm is done. Last September, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who backs his Surgeon General, said, “I will not stand by and let the FDA and CDC use healthy Floridians as guinea pigs for booster shots that have not proven to be safe or effective.”
A 2023 UNICEF report warned that confidence in childhood vaccines in many countries continues to decline, and a 2023 PEW study found that 28 % of Americans said parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their kids, up 12% from the previous year.
Recently, the U.K. had to launch a campaign to persuade parents to have their kids vaccinated for measles, mumps, and rubella, following an increase in cases and a decrease in vaccination rates.
Worse, politicians are among the spreaders of disinformation. People who oppose vaccine requirements are winning seats in state legislatures. In Louisiana, 29 candidates endorsed by a national group that works to defeat mandatory vaccinations, won in state elections last fall.
Some groups appear to be more vulnerable. A survey taken a few years ago indicated that Black respondents anticipate discriminatory treatment for COVID-19. And the roots of Black distrust in health care go back well before that. As Karen Bullock, a professor at Boston College, told me, “Why should Black people believe that a health care system is going to honor their wishes when, for your lifetime, the system hasn’t honored your wishes?”
The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science, an alliance of 90+ organizations, is working to combat disinformation. Their chairman, Dr. Reed Tuckson told me, “We live in an age of manufactured mistrust, and it works. People are drowning in…articles, videos, memes and posts. They don’t have a firm grasp on what to believe.”
Social media contributes to the problem. “It’s not clear that social media platforms can or even want to limit disinformation,” Lorien Abroms of George Washington University told me.
Her research found that Facebook tried to remove vaccine misinformation but failed to do so in a way that would have lasting effects. “They may want to limit disinformation, at least for some topics, but actually don’t know how given the dynamics of their system; it’s a moving target,” Abroms said.
Even Big Tech CEOs like Marc Benioff of Salesforce agree that regulators have not done their jobs regarding social media.
Another health emergency is climate change. The most vulnerable to its effects are children, seniors, pregnant women, those with chronic illness, and people living near toxic substances.
And climate disinformation appears to be evolving. Ed Maibach of George Mason University, an expert on climate communication, told me that most disinformation previously denied there is a problem at all. (A certain U.S. president famously claimed that climate change is a “hoax.”)
Now, Maibach explained, since outright climate denialism is less persuasive, “disinformation agents are instead trying to undermine public confidence in alternatives to fossil energy, like wind and solar power, and EVs.”
Adding AI to the mix threatens not just trust in health and science but also in public institutions and even democracy itself. The World Economic Forum in Davos recently released a survey of nearly 1,500 experts, business leaders, and policymakers who said that AI-fueled disinformation poses a near-term threat to the global economy.
Fake news and propaganda by means of AI could make it easier to influence elections and increase social conflicts. At Davos, Bill Gates predicted that with AI tools, “the bad guys will be more productive.” And Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar talked about AI-generated fake videos of him peddling cryptocurrency on the internet.
Companies have a big stake in communicating truth and transparency to their many stakeholders, including employees, customers, and regulators. Employers thrive and compete with healthy workplaces. Employee health benefits are among their highest expenditures, and disinformation could lead to higher health care costs and absenteeism.
Susceptibility to disinformation threatens everyone, from school kids to voters to corporate CEOs. We are past the point of simply applying healthy skepticism–we all need to do more to protect ourselves, our families, and our constituents.
The medical/industrial complex did this all to themselves.
Their falsehoods and half-truths were a kill shot, and it missed. It turns out, we are smarter than them.
Now, they’re concerned that we are “at risk,” because we didn’t stand in front of the bullet.
We have new skills; here is what their attack will look like henceforth.
I’m expecting the Branch Covidians to show up any minute now.
If climate change were really the existential threat people claim it is, there would be a major push for nuclear and hydroelectric energy. Both sources do not emit carbon and can sustain major cities and power hybrid (or electric) cars. But, since I rarely hear frantic calls for these sources to be built up, I know we’re getting yanked on. Most likely, powerful forces simply want the middle east to produce oil...or something like that....and they know westerners are gullible. So, they string us along with stories of doom.
They are correct. Popular hysteria and misinformation are great hazards of “democracy,” which educated people know from Greek history. That is why we DON’T HAVE a democracy.
The writers throw out a false premise and expect readers to go along, illustrating the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in creating a republic.
“”””“Well over 300,000 Americans are in graveyards today because of the misinformation, the doubt, the suspicion, the distrust that caused them to say that vaccine is not safe for me.””””
And millions are in the graveyards today because they believed that vaccine is safe.
So this is “what rampant disinformation” means for the elite master’s three great hoaxes.
Got it.
“ Another health emergency is climate change.”
Thank you Fortune for that additional turd.
Other article titles from this ex-AARP guy: "Climate change is the next frontier of America’s culture wars." And other laughs-a-minute stuff -- "America can’t fulfill its purpose if we backslide on diversity, equity, and inclusion." "ESG is under attack–but Gen Zers and millennials are still looking for purpose and a paycheck."
He's about as conservative as Obama. / definite sarcasm
Well bill noveli- you don’t get to decide what “misinformation” is, I do! So shut yer pinhole, and stick that in yer pipe and smoke it-
Seems like a lot of carefully handpicked people “told him” this that and the other thing too, but he never did any research o. His own to discover whether what they were feeding him was true or not, so people like h8m do not get to choose,what is or,is not “disinformation “ because they are far too uillible and uninformed!
And I have news for him- even if people do give out “misinformstion”, it is not a crime, not illegal, and is protected under free speech! But the truth of the matter is that everything g he wrote about like,climate change, covid vaccinations etc is based on lies he was told wh8ch he eagerly gobbled down like they were rare delicacies
I think the vaccine topic stopped providing them narcissistic supply, and they moved to the Russia-Ukraine threads.
They exposed a whole other level of the critical flaw in the system where such purveyors of methods of control insist on being exempted from liability for their actions.
Laws for thee but not for me.
To Fortune magazine, Boston College, the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science, Geroge Washington University, George Masan University, Salesforce and Bill Gates, your right to dispute anything is also protected speech, however, it is not illegal, one way or the other.
Some have maintained the same handles, but don’t sound like the same people typing.
“A survey taken a few years ago indicated that Black respondents anticipate discriminatory treatment for COVID-19. And the roots of Black distrust in health care go back well before that. As Karen Bullock, a professor at Boston College, told me, “Why should Black people believe that a health care system is going to honor their wishes when, for your lifetime, the system hasn’t honored your wishes?”
I thought it was MAGA and Republicans that were dying in excess numbers to the enjoyment of the compassionate left, as well as Collins with his grim satisfaction. Abrupt u-turn here to blame it all on racism. Is this what a circular firing squad looks like?
Lying has been with us since Eden.
They act like this is something from 2020.
BREAKING: Robert Kennedy Jr. has been granted a massive victory in his lawsuit against the Biden administration for colluding with social media companies to censor him
twitter.com ^
Posted on 2/17/2024, 5:17:09 AM by RoosterRedux
BREAKING: Robert Kennedy Jr. has been granted a massive victory in his lawsuit against the Biden administration for colluding with social media companies to censor him and others.
RFK Jr. was able to win a preliminary injunction against the White House and several federal agencies as a federal judge ruled that the government was “insinuating themselves into the social-media companies’ private affairs and blurring the line between public and private action.”
Judge Doughty said Kennedy provided substantial evidence that the Biden administration had coerced the companies into suppressing free speech related to Covid, elections, gas prices, climate change, gender, and abortion.
“It is certainly likely that Defendants could use their power over millions of people to suppress alternative views or moderate content that they do not agree with in the upcoming 2024 national election,” the judge added.
The injunction is stayed until 10 days after the Supreme Court rules on Missouri v Biden, though it prevents the White House and other agencies from coercing social media companies to “remove, delete, suppress, or reduce... content containing protected free speech.”
This is a major triumph for free speech in the country that RFK Jr. has won.
Again: RFK has been granted a massive victory in his lawsuit against the Biden administration for colluding with social media companies to censor him
https://twitter.com/ChristianM_74/status/1758343996294811815
Complete and peer reviewed clinical trials with all risks fully examined and exposed. The acceptable standard for any vaccine.
….is this you, FRiend? /s (maybe)
.
“ I think the vaccine topic stopped providing them narcissistic supply, and they moved to the Russia-Ukraine threads.”
I’ve noticed that they have started getting away from the EV threads as well.
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