4 ms·

A large majority of health news shared on Facebook is fake or misleading

ohiovr 8y ago
A Shockley huge number of research papers are bunk. Couple guys from MIT made a fake paper generator and had to break the news because it went undiscovered for so long. Lipitor was promoted for years as a medicine that lowers the risk of stroke. My Mom and two of my close friends had stroke. Two of them are dead. Real confirmation research about Lipitor was done in Europe and Japan and found that it did little if anything to improve the actual outcome that matters. So yes there are medical quacks everywhere online. Even and especially in places people don’t expect.
CedarHill 8y ago
Is anyone surprised by this?
zitterbewegung 8y ago
A large majority of content on social networks are fake or misleading.
- linuxlizard 8y ago
  img file=shocked.gif
riyakhanna1983 8y ago
Social media is not a platform to consume news. Nobody is vetting the content.
npstr 8y ago
Also true: A shockingly large majority of health news is fake or misleading
- andrewla 8y ago
  Oddly enough, despite the clickbait headline, the article supports this thesis. The only place where social media is used here is in the selection of which articles to consider judging for misleadingness. Otherwise, these articles were all carried in regular mainstream publications.
- onetimemanytime 8y ago
  It seems like every 72 hours they change the tune on coffee. Different study, different results. But on social media is the weird news that gets clicks: "eat right and exercise" is not gonna get those shares.
finaliteration 8y ago
And this is a huge part of why we have a measles outbreak happening just a few miles from where I live. Fortunately everyone in my household is vaccinated, but it’s not even supposed to be a thing in the US anymore! And yet it is, not in small part because of widely shared anti-vaccination articles on social media.
- wil421 8y ago
  My wife is pregnant and the doctors realized she isn’t immune to measles. The vaccination she had was either not effective or she didn’t develope immunity. I read a comment on Reddit where a student said they had whooping cough but were vaccinated. Turns out most of the people who had the cough went to the same doctor to get vaccinated. The vaccine he gave was presumably a bad batch. I’d caution against exposing your family to anything if you don’t have to. Especially measles.
  - onetimemanytime 8y ago
    For pregnant women might be different, but CDC says go ahead and do another dose if in doubt https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html Frankly, we should research and then instead of buying a new gadget, just double up, just in case....hep vaccines, tetanus etc etc. Go to a travel clinic and pay cash
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - colejohnson66 8y ago
    I never understood the anti vaccine movement. You’d rather your child have measles and more than have autism?
djohnston 8y ago
this issue transcends facebook, and social media. a large majority of health news shared by the media is fake or misleading
drallison 8y ago
Ummm..I think this can be generalized: a majority of news shared is fake or misleading or incomplete. So, what do we do about it? Even if we had a perfect filter, would we want to use it?

A Shockley huge number of research papers are bunk. Couple guys from MIT made a fake paper generator and had to break the news because it went undiscovered for so long. Lipitor was promoted for years as a medicine that lowers the risk of stroke. My Mom and two of my close friends had stroke. Two of them are dead. Real confirmation research about Lipitor was done in Europe and Japan and found that it did little if anything to improve the actual outcome that matters. So yes there are medical quacks everywhere online. Even and especially in places people don’t expect.

CedarHill 8y ago

Is anyone surprised by this?

zitterbewegung 8y ago

A large majority of content on social networks are fake or misleading.

linuxlizard 8y ago
img file=shocked.gif

riyakhanna1983 8y ago

Social media is not a platform to consume news. Nobody is vetting the content.

npstr 8y ago

Also true: A shockingly large majority of health news is fake or misleading

andrewla 8y ago
Oddly enough, despite the clickbait headline, the article supports this thesis. The only place where social media is used here is in the selection of which articles to consider judging for misleadingness. Otherwise, these articles were all carried in regular mainstream publications.
onetimemanytime 8y ago
It seems like every 72 hours they change the tune on coffee. Different study, different results. But on social media is the weird news that gets clicks: "eat right and exercise" is not gonna get those shares.

finaliteration 8y ago

And this is a huge part of why we have a measles outbreak happening just a few miles from where I live. Fortunately everyone in my household is vaccinated, but it’s not even supposed to be a thing in the US anymore! And yet it is, not in small part because of widely shared anti-vaccination articles on social media.

wil421 8y ago
My wife is pregnant and the doctors realized she isn’t immune to measles. The vaccination she had was either not effective or she didn’t develope immunity. I read a comment on Reddit where a student said they had whooping cough but were vaccinated. Turns out most of the people who had the cough went to the same doctor to get vaccinated. The vaccine he gave was presumably a bad batch. I’d caution against exposing your family to anything if you don’t have to. Especially measles.
- onetimemanytime 8y ago
  For pregnant women might be different, but CDC says go ahead and do another dose if in doubt https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html Frankly, we should research and then instead of buying a new gadget, just double up, just in case....hep vaccines, tetanus etc etc. Go to a travel clinic and pay cash
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- colejohnson66 8y ago
  I never understood the anti vaccine movement. You’d rather your child have measles and more than have autism?

djohnston 8y ago

this issue transcends facebook, and social media. a large majority of health news shared by the media is fake or misleading

drallison 8y ago

Ummm..I think this can be generalized: a majority of news shared is fake or misleading or incomplete. So, what do we do about it? Even if we had a perfect filter, would we want to use it?