Be Wary of What You Read

Did you think about Thursday’s Memo? Especially if you’ve gotten into heated discussions about health on social media? I feel bad for anyone who was a victim of bots and trolls. I generally get the aftermath of a discussion—people who read what I write about vaccinations or artificial sweeteners or some health issue and think I don’t know what I’m talking about because they’ve read something different online. If they’ve been victims of this intentional misinformation, I understand how they’ve been duped.

But don’t think that every bot or troll took the anti-vaxxer position. In order to maximize the argument, they sent out responses supporting vaccination as well. Once an argument began, bots and trolls continued to feed the fire on both sides.

There are two questions that are obvious. Who would do this? And why?

Why Health Information Is Weaponized

Even writing that subhead seems surreal. Who would weaponize health information? Here’s who: people who want to negatively impact our health. Based on the analysis by the researchers, a known Russian troll account from the Internet Research Agency was a major player in this effort to spread vaccine fights. They’re backed by the Russian government; that means they were using disinformation about health as a weapon to create arguments, and more than that, create doubt.

It really doesn’t take much to do that. We are already suspicious of the pharmaceutical industry, and it’s well deserved based on some of their behavior. But that doesn’t mean that they’re in the business of selling worthless vaccinations as has been suggested by many tweets, posts, and websites.

Harming Our Health

What would be the end game for Russian trolls? The goal of creating doubt and suspicion about vaccinations or any issue related to health is sowing discord among readers, but ultimately they want to harm our health. Think about how many people won’t vaccinate their children because they don’t believe in vaccinations for one reason or another. If that proceeds to enough parents, there will be outbreaks of diseases that might have been prevented with vaccinations. It’s already happening.

Think. What if the outbreaks that are occurring in various communities are just the beginning? You can find posts that seem to carefully explain that this is normal and not related to the lack of vaccinations. Now think about it as a post from someone intent on harming the health of the U.S. and other wealthy nations. Puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it?

The Bottom Line

As someone who writes and speaks about health, I’m deeply troubled by health misinformation and how easily it can be spread. You have to be a wary consumer of health information in these days of social media and the Internet. If what you read or what you hear sounds too good to be true or feeds into some conspiracy theory, keep looking.

Nothing in health is simple, but let me go a step farther. I’ll do my part by checking the research to help keep you informed, and I’ll never push you in a direction I don’t believe in. That’s why I’ll never sell foods or dietary supplements on DrChet.com: I want you to know for sure that what I’m telling you is based on my best reading of science and research, not a ploy to increase my income.

What are you prepared to do today?