Dr. Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication, was recently the featured expert in “The Coronavirus Pandemic: Stopping the Spread of Misinformation”, a Facebook Live Q&A presented jointly by The Forum at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, PRX’s The World, and WGBH.
Summary
A flood of evolving information, as well as potentially damaging misinformation, has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. Amplified by social media, misinformation in particular can undermine critical public health efforts, fuel conspiracy theories and add confusion to the global conversation about how to curb the pandemic. In this Facebook Live Q&A, K. “Vish” Viswanath, Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explored the pitfalls of COVID-19 misinformation as well as approaches to surfacing transparent and trustworthy information about the pandemic.
