I learned about hantavirus misinformation this week in the same way I now learn about most public health misinformation: My followers sent it to me.
Within hours of the first headlines about a hantavirus outbreak linked to the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, my DMs started filling with screenshots. One was from the account of a Texas doctor who became well known during Covid for promoting ivermectin. She was already telling followers that ivermectin would work against hantavirus, too.
Some of the messages were from worried parents. Some were from people who had already been told by family members that ivermectin was the answer. A few were from longtime followers who simply wanted me to know it was happening, as if reporting a fire. By the time I sat down to film a video about the outbreak, I had a queue of misinformation to address that I had not yet even seen circulating in my own feed. The audience I built to push back against false claims has, over time, become something closer to a distributed early-warning system.
At this point, the speed of it barely surprises me anymore.
I’m an epidemiologist and a professor at a school of public health, and over the past four years I’ve built a large social media audience largely by debunking medical misinformation in real time. The people who follow me have gotten good at spotting misinformation, too. Before public health agencies even release detailed guidance, they can usually tell where the conspiracy ecosystem is headed...
I learned about hantavirus misinformation this week in the same way I now learn about most public health misinformation: My followers sent it to me. Within hours of the first headlines about a han...