Infodemic: the health misinformation industry

2024-10-17 08:42:00

From the Association of health informants (ANIS), the largest reality in health journalism today, are calling for “collaboration to establish priorities in the fight against health misinformation“.

And they prepared a manifesto: https://lnkd.in/dgC6pjT5.

«We want to count on your collaboration to know what the priorities and detailed initiatives are in the MANIFEST that you consider most relevant as well as any other initiative that you would like to suggest to us”, they explain.

According to this association, whose members I have known (some) for years:

Misinformation increases the risk of disease, death, lack of
adherence to treatment and the delay in adopting evidence-based measures
science to prepare us future global health threats. We recently experienced a clear example of this situation in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Misinformation in the health sector is generating distrust in science and the scientific method among the population health professionalsofficial institutions and media.

Furthermore, the emergence of artificial intelligence is challenging the creation of quality healthcare content and may exacerbate the situation infodemic«.

They also mention the World Health Organization (WHO) to argue that there are two concepts to refer to when referring to this problem: “Misinformation and Disinformation”.

And among the “good intentions” of these comrades there are:

-«Raise awareness among HEALTH AUTHORITIES so that they recognize misinformation
as a public health problem and take action to address it.

-Alert on the presence of misinformation in the field of health in the media
communication and the Internet.

– Open dialogue channels with digital platforms that transmit content
health misinformation.

Industrial disinformation

Before “translating” what these journalists seem to want to say, it is very important to know who finances ANIS. My colleagues, with common sense, offer a section of on their site Transparencyand they say it very clearly, they are financed with the economic contributions from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. And these are the same health officials that journalists must monitor and, if they detect any irregularities, publish and spread it.

I have spent more than 23 years journalistically investigating and analyzing the practices of pharmaceutical industry and healthcare corruption. Believe me when I tell you that it’s really difficult to work in an industry that nourishes you: Dog don’t eat dog.

ANIS has “protective partners” (ugh, how bad does that sound) Pfizer, Chiesi and Pharmamarand among the collaborating partners some other pharmaceutical multinationals such as Abbvie, Lundbeck, Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Wow, there’s money to pay for the canapés.

Misinformation in healthcare

It is paradoxical because health misinformation, what is called misinformation, is the main task of many pharmaceutical laboratories. Since they start developing a drug. As does clinical trial data test its effectiveness and safety They are legally protected by the figure of “commercial secrecy”, they only tell what interests them. To drug agencies and the media.

This is how on many occasions they put really crappy drugs on the market that not only have no effectiveness but also cause serious damage. Cemeteries are full of examples… and this blog. This was the topic that led to healthcare reporting more than two decades ago and they are still here.

When ANIS says that misinformation is increasing the risk of disease, death, non-adherence to treatment and delays in taking evidence-based measures to prepare us for future global health threats, well, I partly agree with them . The healthcare industry is constantly talking about diseases. We have never encountered so many, and this is largely due to the fact that, since they cannot legally advertise their medicines, the marketing strategy We talk endlessly about diseases. You make them known and patients appear on their own in consultations.

«Lack of adherence to treatment». That’s what the industry says stop taking a drug. This, depending on the circumstances, can also be good for the person (imagine undergoing a very harmful and unjustified treatment), but not for those who market it.

“Take action based on scientific evidence.” This is the favorite systemic mantra, but it is also a big lie. An example is the low or no effectiveness of many groups of drugs, including used against cancer, ineffective and dangerous.

There is no distrust towards scientific methodtheir commercial application is distrusted. What use is this method in the hands of unscrupulous laboratories capable of manipulating in one way or another the results of the clinical trials they carry out and the information which they then pass on to regulators and journalists?

And this is something generalized, not anecdotal. He is called corruption and those who report it are not “uninformed”, nor are they against science, but on the contrary, since they care about knowledge, they protect it from those who prostitute it for purely economic interests.

Las HEALTH AUTHORITIES How can they not recognize misinformation?
as a public health problem?, if on many occasions they are the ones who promote it, taking advice from the “plumbers” of the industries. An example: in the government’s vaccination strategy during the pandemic there were pediatricians who recognize this they charge vaccine manufacturers.

On the presence of misinformation in the field of health in the media and on the Internet. It never was censored so much on the internet like during the last pandemic.

The social networks of the majority have “caged” many people, including journalists like me, who spread information that is not of interest to the established powers. I myself have suffered (and still suffer) the Facebook censorship for having published official information!, on the basis of what was released by the Medicines Agency, about the damage of anti-Covid vaccines.

As ANIS will open channels of dialogue with digital platforms that broadcast health misinformation content, I encourage you to try to put an end to this CENSORSHIP. There can be an enemy worse than JOURNALISM?

In reality, what these censors (and those behind them) seek is not to put an end to health information, as I have already said that I published the press releases of the Spanish Medicines Agency, but rather they try to put an end to people, those who truly inform about health without being financed by industries.