The logo of Facebook is displayed on a background image on a smart phone screen.
Science, a leading US journal, published a rare editorial Thursday calling on scientists to combat the COVID misinformation spreading on Facebook.
H. Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief, wrote that the pandemic revealed the shocking ineptness of the scientific establishment in communicating messages about vaccinations and masks or the dangers associated with consuming horse drugs.
Former chemistry professor said that social media was being skillfully exploited "antiscience forces", naming Ben Shapiro (right wing public figure) and Dan Bongino (antiscience force).
Communication about research is difficult. The scientific process is slow, iterative, and has caveats and answers. Thorpand admits that such content is not always suitable for viral posts.
He said that the problem is that the antiscience opposition does not care about the caveats.
While there have been many credible scientists who have gained large Twitter followings due to the pandemic (examples: Ashish Jha from Brown School of Public Health, Celine Gounder at NYU), the same cannot be said for Facebook.
Thorp said that people trust those they know on Facebook and it is powerful for changing minds. He encouraged engagement, not a boycott.
"Science will have to find its own super-figures who can compete directly against the Shapiros, Bonginos, and antiscience world." He said, regardless of whether they are scientists or science communicators.
He stated, concluding that climate and COVID research had proved that scientists were naive since the end of World War II.
Find out more Bots to blame for misinformation about COVID on Facebook
More information: Editorial: Time for Facebook to be unfriended? Science (2021). Information from Science Editorial: Time for you to unfriend Facebook (2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm5515
2021 AFP
