Department of Medicine, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester Michigan, Rochester, Michigan, USA,
Department of Medicine, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Blood Purif. 2021;50(4-5):595-601. doi: 10.1159/000512707. Epub 2021 Jan 14.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an avalanche of information, much of it false or misleading. Social media posts with misleading or dangerous opinions and analyses are often amplified by celebrities and social media influencers; these posts have contributed substantially to this avalanche of information. An emerging force in this information infodemic is public physicians, doctors who view a public presence as a large segment of their mission. These physicians bring authority and real-world experience to the COVID-19 discussion. To investigate the role of public physicians, we interviewed a convenience cohort of physicians who have played a role in the infodemic. We asked the physicians about how their roles have changed, how their audience has changed, what role politics plays, and how they address misinformation. The physicians noted increased audience size with an increased focus on the pandemic. Most avoided confronting politics, but others found it unavoidable or that even if they tried to avoide it, it would be brought up by their audience. The physicians felt that confronting and correcting misinformation was a core part of their mission. Public physicians on social media are a new occurrence and are an important part of fighting online misinformation.
新冠疫情带来了海量信息，其中很多是虚假或误导性的。带有误导性或危险观点和分析的社交媒体帖子经常被名人和社交媒体影响者放大；这些帖子极大地促成了信息洪流。在这场信息疫情中，一个新的力量是公众医生，他们将公众存在视为其使命的重要组成部分。这些医生为新冠疫情讨论带来了权威和现实经验。为了研究公众医生的作用，我们采访了一些在信息疫情中发挥作用的医生。我们询问了医生们他们的角色如何发生变化，他们的受众如何变化，政治扮演什么角色，以及他们如何处理错误信息。这些医生注意到，随着对大流行的关注度增加，受众规模也在增加。大多数医生回避政治问题，但也有一些医生发现政治问题不可避免，或者即使他们试图回避，也会被观众提出来。医生们认为，面对和纠正错误信息是他们使命的核心部分。社交媒体上的公众医生是一个新现象，是抗击网络错误信息的重要组成部分。
