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By Caitlyn Lepp
Health professionals and Canadian scientists are taking to social media to stop the spread of misinformation and inaccurate theories about COVID-19 and vaccines.
The experts use the hashtag #ScienceUpFirst to provide science-based evidence on social media.
Dr. Krishana Sankar, the project manager and a steering committee member for ScienceUpFirst, says misinformation impacts the health and safety of Canadians.
“Whether we are taking it to different social media platforms where we are seeing lots of misinformation being floated around and shared, we are doing this independently,” Sankar said on Wednesday’s Brent Loucks Show. “And as much as that was great, obviously it was just a drop in the ocean.”
Misinformation has been spread around for years, but Sankar says it has expanded exponentially since the COVID pandemic began.
“With all the information people are getting daily, people are constantly bombarded with so much information that it can be really difficult to distill between what is truth and what is not,” Sankar said.
“Having this campaign, we are hoping to be able to drown out this type of misinformation and instead replace it with scientifically informed information.”
ScienceUpFirst is a campaign and movement that invites people to get involved and share with their friends and family.
“It’s a national awareness and engagement initiative where we are creating, distributing and amplifying science-informed content. We invite people to visit the content and interact with the content,” Sankar said.
When decisions about the pandemic are made early by health officials, it becomes easy to pick science apart.
“This is one of the first times the public is getting to see science happen in real time and I think this is where science literacy in schools is lacking, because a lot of us grow up without it and we forget that science is a process,” Sankar said.
Sankar reminded people to be patient as more puzzle pieces are found about the COVID-19 pandemic.
More information about the campaign can be found here.