When Doctors Spread Misinformation, Can Anything Be Done?
Earlier this week, yet another Covid-19 misinformation video went viral. (Here’s a great debunker of the subject matter.) What was especially disappointing was that, yet again, the people in the video are men and women with medical degrees — many practicing physicians. The Medium Coronavirus Blog spoke this week to Arthur Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine, about whether anything can be done when doctors spread clear misinformation.
Ultimately, there’s not very much to be done swiftly, besides hoping that platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook do their part to moderate the spread of misinformation. But Caplan says there are a few tangible things that individuals can do if they see deliberate misinformation spreading by physicians. Here are his three pieces of advice:
- Communicate with the doctor directly if you can. Caplan says if your own provider is sharing information that doesn’t seem right, ask them about it. “You can say, ‘I see you’re not wearing a mask. It doesn’t seem consistent with what I believe is accepted medical knowledge, please let me know why you are doing that,’” Caplan suggests.
- Complain to the state medical association. “You should,” says Caplan. “Say, ‘I think this doctor is not wearing masks and I think you should take…
