Scientists, experts aim to combat COVID-19 conspiracies with new social media campaign

A group of scientists and health experts have launched a social media campaign to help combat COVID-19 misinformation in Canada.

The ScienceUpFirst initiative is being spearheaded by concerned scientists, researchers, information experts and health care providers to try to counter the mounting misinformation surrounding the virus and COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

The group is being led by the Canadian Association of Science Centres, COVID-19 Resources Canada and the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta.

The main goal of the initiative is to get social media users to consider the available science before sharing or posting content they find online.

“We will be sharing information that has been vetted for scientific accuracy by experts,” says Dr. Tara Moriarty, an infectious disease expert at the University of Toronto. “What we want to to do is empower Canadians to use those posts and share them on their own social media knowing that the information has been checked.”

The campaign says that the pandemic has led to a rise in conspiracies surrounding COVID-19 and cooperation is required to help disseminate and highlight accurate information.

“The WHO has classified this as a global infodemic,” reads the ScienceUpFirst website. “According to experts conspiracy, misinformation and conspiracy theories are rapidly spreading on social media and represent a threat to the health and safety of Canadians.”

Moriarty says a crucial step is for the experts to be able to get out ahead of any false claims and the intiative hopes to provide a framework that will allow for rapid response,

“One of the problems with misinformation is that it fills in gaps before there are official responses. It’s very important to have very rapid responses on social media so that people can be prepared for what is coming.”

Recently, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) said dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is spreading on social media among all age groups and could actually do harm to Canada’s efforts to end the pandemic.

The OMA’s analysis of more than 65,000 recent online posts in Ontario shows that conspiracy theories about the origin of the novel coronavirus and fears that vaccines are dangerous and untested run particularly rampant among people under age 35.

Dr. Samantha Hill said if people fear the vaccines they won’t get them, and whether vaccines are delayed by supply issues or patients hesitant to take them, the result will be tragic.

“Every delay that we have costs us lives,” she said.

With files from the Canadian Press