Tag: public health

Science-based news faces an uphill challenge against misinformation. The article says:

[P]eople consume scientific news in the same way as they consume conspiracy news. They both have roughly the same number of likes per comment and comments per share. 

That the consumption rates are the same is not good news, by the way. Going further into the article:

Readers of conspiracy news are more likely to both share and like a post than readers of mainstream science news. That appears to reflect a greater desire to spread conspiracy-based information than mainstream information.

One more important quote:

It turns out that readers focused on conspiracy news tend not to engage with mainstream sites but instead devote their energies towards the diffusion of conspiracies. By contrast, readers focused on scientific news are more likely to comment on conspiracy pages. “A possible explanation for such behavior is that the former want to diffuse what is neglected by mainstream thinking, whereas the latter aims at inhibiting the diffusion of conspiracy news,” say Bessi and co.

Read more on Technology Review. 

A decade ago the FDA warned, rightly, about the risks associated with adolescents and suicide attempts when taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a class of antidepressants. But, a BMJ article from Harvard researchers, available at the Washington Post, show this warning backfired. The WP says:

“antidepressant prescriptions fell sharply for adolescents age 10 to 17 and for young adults age 18 to 29." 

As fewer adolescents took the medications, the rate of suicides also increased by 20%.  The takeaway:

Researchers said their findings underscore how even well-intentioned public health warnings can produce unintended conseque­n­c­­es, particularly when they involve widespread media attention and sensitive topics such as depression and suicide.