How I Curate My Pandemic News Feed
Scientific research is changing. Doctors and scientists are finding new ways to share information with the public. Are you listening?
Hey all, greetings from San Francisco!
I drove up here from LA on a pandemic road trip. I’m feeling a mix of excitement and caution, like Will Smith in a post-apocalyptic action thriller.
San Francisco is emerging from lockdown. Restaurants in the Marina and Russian Hill have converted sidewalks and parking spaces into outdoor dining patios. I’ve enjoyed dining al fresco. The city has a more European vibe, albeit with masks and sanitizer.
Healthcare myths and conspiracies
This week I’m writing about the challenges of communicating science news to the public. We all need to understand what’s going on with testing, treatment and vaccines. Yet misinformation and confusion spread more each day.
I’ll describe how healthcare leaders are finding new ways to share information. I’ll explain how the very nature of science is changing. Finally, I’ll share a link to my personal Covid brain trust.
In the news this week:
California's Public Health Director resigned on Sunday after the discovery of a computer system failure that resulted in the undercounting of Covid-19 cases.
SalivaDirect is nearing FDA approval. This cheap, rapid saliva testing could help us test at scale more rapidly and reopen schools and businesses safely.
Russia approved a coronavirus vaccine—with no evidence from large-scale clinical trials! International scientists worry about the risks of rushing the vaccine approval process.
CDC and WHO guidelines keep changing. Videos that espouse Covid-19 conspiracy theories (e.g. Plandemic) have been shared millions of times. A new paper in the journal Nature found that anti-vaccination views are drowning out the more mainstream voices online.
Some myths and conspiracies are ludicrous and can be easily dismissed, but others are life-threatening.
When it comes to science news, how should people know what to believe?
Why healthcare leaders are flocking to social media
The pandemic is highlighting profound changes in how we get our news today. Most people under 65 hear about news first through friends on social media or group chats.
More health and science leaders are using digital platforms to reach bigger audiences:
Podcasts: Check out The Osterholm Update with Dr. Michael Osterholm (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, CIDRAP). He raised alarm bells in early March with his appearance on Joe Rogan. Now he has a podcast of his own.
Twitter: Healthcare leaders like Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt, former head of Medicare under Obama) are using Twitter to share perspectives on Covid-19 medical research and public health policy.
YouTube: UCSF Medical chair Dr. Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) converted his hospital’s Medical Grand Rounds into Covid Grand Rounds and began broadcasting them on YouTube. Each week he hosts a panel of experts presenting updates on the latest clinical findings or research advances. Since March, the UCSF Grand Rounds have been viewed over 600,000 times on YouTube.
How healthcare leaders use social media to inform the public and policy makers
By countering misinformation about Covid-19, healthcare leaders can help policy makers avoid introducing harmful policies, improve public understanding of the pandemic and save lives.
Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School said this on Armchair Expert, a podcast with Dax Shepard:
“What’s really helping is getting information out directly from scientists. The role of the middleman is evaporating. Scientists are using podcasts and Twitter to speak directly with the public. They’re frustrated with old media. They don’t want their words to be twisted.”
Dr. Wachter of UCSF Medical wrote this in “Tweeting a Pandemic”:
“There’s never been a time that I can recall in which everyone wanted – needed – to know things that physicians and scientists spend years learning: how viruses spread, how to interpret test results, how clinical trials are designed, and what abbreviations ranging from PCR to PPE mean.
While scientists had the advantage of knowing a lot of foundational information and concepts, Covid-19 was a great leveler: on January 1, 2020, no one knew anything about this particular virus.
And so we have all learned about it together."
A paradigm shift in scientific research
Science is changing. We’re seeing more journalists reporting on preprint papers. These are studies that have not yet been peer-reviewed but have been made publicly available online.
There are more than 100 new papers on Covid-19 posted on the main preprint servers (bioRxiv, medRxiv) every day.
Preprints can be seen as an earlier view of the scientific conversation than you’re usually getting. A lot of the discussion that would typically go on in the academic community has shifted onto Twitter and other online sites.
Dr. Vinay Prasad of UCSF (@VPrasadMDMPH) says Twitter and social media have emerged as a great public forum for criticism and thoughtful commentary on clinical studies.
The scientific method is essentially a methodology for asking questions. This works a lot faster in the Internet era, when leaders in their fields can communicate with each other instantaneously.
It’s a paradigm shift in scientific research: Scientists are releasing data as soon as they have it, collaborating across disciplines and time zones.
We are just 6 months into Covid-19 and scientists have data on steroids, antivirals, and anti-inflammatories. We have multiple vaccines in late-stage studies. The public health response has been a disaster, but biomedical research is advancing.
How I use Twitter to stay informed
“Twitter is building the conversation layer of the Internet.”
-CEO Jack Dorsey on The Daily podcast (NY Times)
With so many news sources out there, curating a healthy information diet is essential. I avoid most TV news. I read long-form journalism in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker.
I use podcasts and Twitter to connect directly with experts: doctors, scientists, public health officials. It’s where I go when there’s a new clinical study people are buzzing about. Should we believe the data, and if so, what are the implications on public health and policy?
Since mid-March, Twitter has verified hundreds of Covid-19 experts globally, including scientists and academics. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are using AI and human moderation to block misleading or false news related to Covid-19.
Twitter, like any new tool, can be used in both positive and negative ways. You need to curate your feed the way you’d pick out a guest list for a dinner party. Get the guest list right, and Medical Twitter can feel like you’ve got a seat at the table with the smartest minds in healthcare and science.
One more thing. I’m almost hesitant to share this last tip for fear that too many people will start using it.
Not only can you listen to experts on Twitter, you can talk to them, too. The DM feature is a massively under-hyped tool. Using it feels like a superpower. I’ve used it to connect with world-renowned scientists. It’s most effective for short, focused comments or questions.
My Covid brain trust
I created a custom Twitter feed that collects all my favorite coronavirus experts in the same place. It’s called Vitamin Z Covid-19 Experts—a list of the top people to follow in science and healthcare. You can find a link to it here.
If you’re new to Twitter and not sure where to start:
Bookmark this link
Use it to follow what the top experts are saying
You’ll get incisive, unbiased thoughts and commentary—unfiltered by news media. It’s a great resource for expert perspectives on new treatments, vaccines and policy issues like school reopenings.
Think of it as your digital sherpa to help you navigate the rocky terrain of healthcare and science news.
Let me know what you think!
Until next week,
By Daniel Zahler
I’m Daniel, a healthcare and life sciences consultant based in Santa Monica, California. Every week I write an email newsletter with perspectives on health and wellness trends, and strategies & tactics on how to optimize cognitive, physical and emotional health.
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