“The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella causes autism.” “The threat of taking a statin outweighs its advantage as a potent tool to protect against heart attacks.” “The flu shot brought on me to get the flu.”
These are just a couple of examples of points that have been scientifically disproven, but the spread of health-related misinformation nevertheless poses a true threat to people and communities. In truth, we know the spread of misinformation in basic – and health-related misinformation in certain – continues to be on the rise.
Extra than 70% of folks had been exposed to health-related or overall health-connected misinformation in 2022, according to a study from GoodRx. Of these exposed, pretty much half are not confident in their capacity to discriminate involving accurate overall health details and misinformation. In addition, social media was cited as the most popular supply of misinformation.
Hospitals and overall health systems can play an essential part in making certain individuals have trustworthy, precise and scientifically sound details to assistance them make the ideal overall health care choices for themselves and their loved ones.
Combatting misinformation and arming hospitals and overall health systems with sources to do so is an essential priority for the AHA.
1 of the methods we are carrying out this is by means of our participation in the Coalition for Trust in Overall health & Science. Launched final month, the coalition, which involves 50 national organizations, seeks to combat misinformation and assistance Americans make science-primarily based overall health choices for themselves, their households and communities.
This broad alliance represents hospitals, physicians, nurses, psychologists, bioethicists and numerous other kinds of overall health care experts. We have joined forces to push back against a popular enemy, an “infodemic” that has true-planet overall health impacts.
We hope the coalition’s function will be a force multiplier for actions AHA has led for some time to counteract the dangers of misinformation and deliver people medically and scientifically sound details to inform their overall health care choices.
For instance, final month, we collaborated with the American Healthcare Association and American Nurses Association on a new public service announcement encouraging people to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 when eligible to shield themselves, their households and communities from really serious illness and death.
The PSA continues a 3-year collaboration by the associations to curb the spread of COVID-19 and shield individuals, communities and overall health care experts by spreading the message that the updated boosters and other COVID-19 vaccines are protected, successful and encouraged for every person aged six months and older.
Our caregivers are amongst the world’s ideal at repairing bodies and restoring individuals to overall health. Restoring trust is just as essential. And caregivers are amongst the most trusted voices, according to public customer polls.
The AHA is committed to collaborating with our partners to shine the truth on risky public overall health misinformation of any type, and replace it with information and scientific expertise that can save lives and advance overall health for all.
