Oh boy... this is a correction I really wish I didn’t have to write.
In my first big piece on misinformation in Science I ended up misinforming readers about a study on misinformation in Science.
(I know. No irony there whatsoever.)
Let me go through it slowly:
So: In 2018, Science published a piece by @sinanaral, @dkroy and @CrashTheMod3 that showed that false news spreads “farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth”.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3 The result was often communicated as a very general “lies spread faster than the truth". But that's a bit of an overstatement. The Science paper specifically looked at news that had been fact-checked by sites like Snopes, so news that had gotten enough attention to warrant that.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3 The authors checked their results on a larger news sample that was not fact-checked and got the same result. But generalising to all fake news is still an inference.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3 The conclusions of that paper were important for many reasons. One interesting implication was that it might be possible to pinpoint misinformation automatically, simply by the pattern of its “farther, faster, deeper, broader” spread.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3@jugander@jonassjuul Now, I originally wrote in my Science piece that this analysis showed that when accounting for the size of these news cascades, the effect of fake news spreading faster, disappeared.
But that is wrong. That was me misreading the paper.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3@jugander@jonassjuul What the PNAS paper actually showed was that fake news in the sample really does spread faster, farther, deeper and broader.
But the “faster, deeper and broader” part is down to the farther part. So what looks like a different pattern is really a difference in one thing: size.
@sinanaral@dkroy@CrashTheMod3@jugander@jonassjuul That means that this pattern alone is probably not all that helpful in pinpointing fake news because it essentially just one characteristic (it could be one feature of several to use in automatic detection of misinformation, of course)
I’ve said a few times that how this pandemic has played out so far makes me think I cannot just remain an infectious disease reporter but have to understand/write about misinformation and how it spreads too.
So here is a first story (and thread) on this:
First off: Delving into a new field is the most daunting and the most rewarding part of being a journalist. It will take time to know this area as well as I know infections. So if you know of fascinating ideas, research, scientists out there, point me in the right direction…
So what have I learnt in this forst foray into the budding field of misinformation research?
Well, (no surprise to anyone who knows me): It’s complicated.
“The global increase in #COVID19 cases continues, driven by large outbreaks in Asia and a fresh wave in Europe”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser.
"We all want to move on from the pandemic. But no matter how much we wish it away, this pandemic is not over."
“Even as some high-income countries propose a second booster dose, one third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated”, says @DrTedros.
“But there are some promising signs of progress.”
@DrTedros “In Nigeria, for example, vaccine uptake was dramatically increased when supply stabilized, and planning was done on how to effectively distribute vaccines”, says @DrTedros.
Goal remains to vaccinate 70% of population in every country by middle of this year.
“This Friday marks two years since we said that the global spread of #covid19 could be characterised as a pandemic”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser.
“Two years later, more than 6 million people have died."
@DrTedros@WHO "Although reported cases and deaths are declining globally and several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over”, says @DrTedros.
"And it will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."
@DrTedros@WHO "@WHO is concerned that several countries are drastically reducing testing. This inhibits our ability to see where the virus is, how it's spreading, and how it's evolving”, says @DrTedros.
"Testing remains a vital tool in our fight against the pandemic"
Of these 47 cases:
42 (89%) were not vaccinated,
3 (6%) were vaccinated twice,
2 (4%) had one vaccination.
For comparison: In Denmark on the whole:
81% are vaccinated twice and 62% have received the booster.
None were hospitalized or died in follow-up period.
"Detailed information of symptoms was obtained for 33 of the cases, whereof most of them reported symptoms during both infections … The distribution of reported symptoms did not differ markedly between the two infections"
I attended a little roundtable today with key people at @WHO ahead of this week’s 3rd #COVID19 Global Research and Innovation Forum. There was no news, but some interesting comments so a quick thread:
England dropping all restrictions came up of course.
“It's a period of great uncertainty”, @DrMikeRyan said.
“I think a lot of people even in the UK are choosing to wear their masks indoors, are choosing to wear their masks on public transport.”
“Whether their governments continue to mandate that activity is an issue for national policy. But I certainly know from my own perspective, I'll be wearing my mask on public transport and indoor spaces probably for a good while yet”, @DrMikeRyan said.
After spending many weeks reporting on #omicron, I spent the first two weeks of 2022 having omicron.
It inevitably feels like a defeat of sorts after two years of avoiding the virus. But I’ve studied infectious diseases long enough to know that’s not helpful - or even the point.
Like many vaccinated and boostered people, I experienced a mild infection.
Of course I wonder what the experience would have been like with no prior immunity at all.
I’m privileged. I got three doses. One third of the world population has gotten zero doses so far.
Delivery of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries has been picking up and COVAX recently delivered its one billionth dose.
That’s good news.
But the way we have handled global access to vaccines overall has been bad.