Two studies found that popular social media posts are filled with inaccuracies about science, which can be damaging to public health amid coronavirus pandemic, as reported by CNN.
One study found that more than one in four of the most popular YouTube videos about the novel coronavirus contained misinformation. In contrast, another found that vaccine skeptics are gaining more engagement on Facebook.
The YouTube Misinformation
A team of researchers in Canada found that more than 70% of adults search for health information online. They examined YouTube videos that mentioned coronavirus that trended in a day earlier this year.
They came up with a list of 69 videos with a total of 257,804,146 views. They have excluded non-English, more than an hour in length, or have no audio or visual content.
They rated each video based on accuracy covering symptoms, prevention, treatments, and viral spread. The most misleading YouTube video was viewed by over 62 million people.
These videos were posted by various sources. The majority of the videos are news, while others came from entertainment outlets, internet-based news operations, YouTube professionals, newspapers, educational institutions, and government agencies.
The study shows that almost 50 or 72% of the videos provide factual details. However, the remaining 28% had misleading or inaccurate information--the study was published in the online journal BMJ Global Health by Heidi Oi-Yee Li of the University of Ottawa and colleagues in Canada.
Li and colleagues wrote that there is a "significant potential for harm" if many videos are inaccurate. Acknowledging the power of YouTube, it should be better utilized by health professionals.
Currently, the government often provides static and uninteresting information. Instead, researchers urge public health authorities should team up with people who better understand the YouTube platform.
Misleading Facebook Posts
Another study looked at scientific information that circulated on Facebook. Researchers found that static tone made messages from official public health leaders less powerful.
Since people who have passive views about vaccines are more influenced by what they see on social media, the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature found emphasized that it could be a real problem during the coronavirus pandemic.
Researchers from George Washington University, University of Miami, Michigan State University, and Los Alamos National Laboratory teamed up in this study. They analyzed comments from over 100 million Facebook users in various online communities that discussed vaccines amid the 2019 measles outbreak.
Researchers looked into these Facebook users and divided them into three groups, based on their opinions: pro-vaccine, anti-vaccine, and the undecided.
According to this study, while fewer people did not believe in vaccines, there was nearly three times the number of anti-vaccination groups on Facebook. These groups allowed to become more entwined with the undecided communities, which eventually swayed some opinions.
Neil Johnson, who co-authors the study, said that while anti-vaccine groups are relatively small, they appear big online because they offer numerous arguments. These include ideas that vaccines caused health problems while others emphasized on free choice. Others trickled conspiracy theories.
Tech Times listed the signs on how to spot a conspiracy theory in social media, based on a Conspiracy Theory Handbook.
Signs include conflicting ideas, overriding suspicion, evil intent, immunity to evidence, reinterpreting uncertainty, among others. These can guide anyone to spot conspiracy theories, particularly those linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson also said he is "seeing people in these groups saying that they won't get a Covid-19 vaccine," and they seek other options to keep themselves safe. He told CNN that this study hopefully will help health authorities to find new communication strategies to reach more audiences.
