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With the Delta variant taking hold and COVID cases on the rise in mid-July, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, released an advisory declaring that misinformation was a serious health threat and urging Americans to help slow its spread during the pandemic and beyond.
Last weekend, speakers at the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) 2021 Annual Meeting, in New Orleans, Louisiana, issued a similar call to arms. "We have to take advantage of the very special role that we all play in the lives of our patients," said David Stukus, MD, an allergist-immunologist and professor of clinical pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. "We want to use that trust that we've developed with them to help combat misinformation."
According to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, personal doctors and pediatricians topped the list of trusted sources for reliable COVID-19 vaccine information, Gerald Lee, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, told attendees.
Social media usage has soared over the past decade. Today, 7 in 10 Facebook users say they visit the site daily, and nearly 80% of Americans who regularly get news on Snapchat and TikTok view social media as an important source of vaccine news, according to Pew Research Center data that Lee presented at the meeting.
