as the new york daily news states on today s cover. wifi so many unvaccinated getting sick, it s clear that mis and disinformation is causing information suffering. dr. vivek murthy joins me now. dr. murthy, thank you for coming on the program. well, good to be with you, br brian it s been several weeks since you issued a surgeon general warning about misinformation about what companies, platforms, governments can do. have you sensed any improvements in the last few weeks since you issued your warning? we ve certainly seen much more awareness around the risk and consequences of health misinformation. we see more engagement from some of the technology platforms and growing awareness and interest from the public and the steps that they can take to reduce the spread of misinformation, including by being more
not just, for example, reporting on a side effect. we re making sure people understand that that side effect might be incredibly rare and much more rare than the consequences of actually getting ill. and we need them to provide context. i know sometimes people can be taken in by headlines that are designed to grab attention, even though they may not necessarily be accurate entirely or may not give context. and we need to inform, not alarm, when it comes to our coverage. and we ve got to avoid what i think of is a false equivalency of putting an incredible source up against a source that is clearly not credible and saying we re just hearing two types or points of view. that gives people i think the false impression that some of these myths and misinformation are believed by a large portion of people or by the scientific community. and that s absolutely not the case. these are all places where i think the media can play and it has to play a really important role. i think a lot of journal
information that s conveyed on our air waves. i agree the critiques about headlines, about false equivalency. certainly what we just saw from one america news, that s nonsense on the fringe, not in the mainstream. isn t the problem deeper than what you re addressing when you have people on tv talking crazy stuff about magnets? well, i think the problem of misinformation is a deep-seated problem because it s not just about misinformation, brian, it s about disinformation, the willful spread of myths and falsehoods. that is dangerous and we know that that is amplified on social media and on traditional media. have you reached out to one america news or news max or these other fringe sources? we ve reached out to many. i don t name the specific ones. but we have reached out to media organizations across the political spectrum. there are many more out there that we need to engage with and that more broadly need to hear from their consumers about the fact that this kind of, the
say he is not going to get the shot as if he somehow believes this magnet nonsense. what do you hear when you watch or hear a clip like that? well, it reminds me that journalists and the media have an incredibly important role and responsibility in preventing the spread of misinformation. while we all have the right to make our own choices, we don t have the right to irresponsibly spread misinformation. i believe in my conversations with media outlets that this doesn t have to be a partisan issue. i ve had many conversations with folks across the political spectrum in terms of journalists who absolutely want to do the right thing in terms of getting accurate information out to the public. this doesn t have to be partisan. but what we do need journalists and media organizations to look at is their current practices. we need them to make sure that they are putting forward credible sources when they do their interviews and when they push out coverage. we need them to make sure that they