Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, some healthcare and medical professionals have made deliberately false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and virus transmission, championed unconfirmed treatments and miracle cures, and disparaged public health efforts like masking and social distancing. Back in September 2021, for example, Dr. Rashid Buttar shared an article via Twitter alleging that most vaccinated individuals would die by 2025; days later, he claimed that COVID-19 “was a planned operation” (Knight, 2021). Buttar was one of many continuing to spread pandemic-related disinformation — earlier in the pandemic, in April 2020, Dr. Joseph Mercola peddled hydrogen peroxide as a solution to prevent or cure COVID-19 (Knight, 2021). According to a 2021 report by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), both Buttar and Mercola are part of the “Disinformation Dozen,” a group of “top super-spreaders of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation” that includes medical professionals (Bond, 2021).
Researchers found that just 12 people were responsible for almost two thirds of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that were found on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook in early 2021 (CCDH, 2021). Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, said “the ‘Disinformation Dozen’ produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms” (Bond, 2021). Among the dozen are anti-vaccine activists, people known for promoting alternative medicine, and other physicians like Buttar and Mercola. The presence of medical professionals in this group is particularly concerning, since their credentials lend weight to their claims: licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust “due to their specialized knowledge and training,” giving them a powerful platform in society (Castrucci, 2022). National polls have found that most Americans trust medical professionals to communicate accurate information about the virus (Castrucci, 2022). Because of this, the spread of COVID disinformation “poses serious health risks… and significantly damages vaccine confidence across the country” (Landi, 2021).
Leaders of professional medical organizations have called for medical oversight boards to take aggressive action against medical professionals that spread disinformation. In July of 2021, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) issued a statement warning that “Physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards,” including license suspension or revocation (Castrucci, 2022). Survey findings later showed that two-thirds of state medical boards had seen an increase in complaints “related to licensee dissemination of false or misleading reports.” Still, only 12 of those boards – 17 percent – took disciplinary action against those licensees (Castrucci, 2022). In September, the American Board of Pediatrics, the American Board of Family Medicine, and the American Board of Internal Medicine issued a joint statement like the one from FSMB (Landi, 2021). And in November, the American Medical Association House of Delegates rolled out a new policy calling for the association to collaborate with other health professional societies and relevant stakeholders to combat public health disinformation in all forms of media (Landi, 2021).
News organizations across the United States have lifted their paywalls to share coverage of the pandemic, and public criticism has lead organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take steps toward improving their public health messaging (Bauder, 2020; Simmons-Duffin, 2022). As the pandemic persists, aided by the emergence of new variants like Omicron, the need for clear, reliable, and accessible public health information remains.
References
Bauder, D. (2020, March 20). News organizations drop paywall for coronavirus information. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/news-organizations-drop-paywall-coronavirus-information-69696012
Bond, S. (2021, May 14). Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes
Castrucci, B. (2022, January 8). Medical boards are turning a blind eye to doctors pushing Covid lies. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-vaccine-treatment-misinformation-medical-malpractice-it-should-be-punished-ncna1287180
Center for Countering Digital Hate. (2021, May). The Disinformation Dozen. CCDH. https://www.counterhate.com/disinformationdozen
Covid vaccine: Social media urged to remove “disinfo dozen.” (2021, March 26). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56536390
Knight, V. (2021, September 22). Will ‘Dr. Disinformation’ Ever Face the Music? Kaiser Health News. https://khn.org/news/article/disinformation-dozen-doctors-covid-misinformation-social-media/
Landi, H. (2021, November 16). AMA moves against doctors who are spreading COVID-19 disinformation. FierceHealthcare. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/ama-moves-against-doctors-who-are-spreading-covid-19-disinformation
Simmons-Duffin, S. (2022, January 7). CDC is criticized for failing to communicate, promises to do better. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/01/07/1071449137/cdc-is-criticized-for-failing-to-communicate-promises-to-do-better
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