Timothy Caulfield

Professor of health law & science policy, speaker, TV host, and author.

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-09-07

"Study finds COVID vaccine mandates significantly reduce infection rates on college campuses" medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09

From study: "These data are consistent with COVID vaccines having achieved hoped-for effects in our community..."

#VaccinesWork #publichealth #Vaccines #science #education #scicomm

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-31

How folk remedies can fuel #misinformation theconversation.com/how-folk-r

"...the idea that folk wisdom is predominantly benign might be why experts tend to pay less attention to it."

"...but they can hurt people."

Agree. Let's avoid legitimizing pseudoscience.

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-29

Our information ecosystem has become a massive false-balance machine.

Needed: more accurate representations of the scientific consensus.

My new piece: Is bothsidesism killing us? (And why scientific consensus matters) healthydebate.ca/2023/08/topic via
@healthydebate

#Scicomm #science #misinformation #criticalthinking #publichealth #climatechange #gmo #VaccinesWork

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-28

The “need for chaos” is linked to the sharing of conspiracy theories, study finds psypost.org/2023/08/the-need-f

"Individuals with a higher need for chaos were more likely to express willingness to share all six conspiracy theories..."

#misinformation #science #scicomm #conspiracytheory

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-20

Accurately communicating scientific consensus key in fight against misinformation.

Covering scientific consensus: journalistsresource.org/media/

"A weight-of-experts approach is better at helping people determine the validity of scientific claims..."

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-20

Deepfakes & scientific knowledge dissemination nature.com/articles/s41598-023

"...27–50% of individuals cannot distinguish authentic videos from deepfakes."

"Science misinformation on topics ranging from climate change to vaccines have significant public policy repercussions."

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-20

Physicians play a critical role in the battle against bunk. Studies consistently show they remain one of the most trusted voices.

Truly an honour to speak at the #CMAHealthSummit about countering the spread of #misinformation. Energizing to hang with this wonderful community! 🙏

#Misinformation #SciComm #medicine #physicians #science #evidence

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-16

Trolls: Low self-esteem & feelings of inferiority.

"...people with low self-esteem might use trolling as a way to cope..."

"...online aggression might help individuals with high FOMO avoid... feelings of inferiority."

psypost.org/2023/08/low-self-e

#scicomm #misinformation

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-16

Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst & uncertainty nature.com/articles/d41586-023

Me: If experts leave, "are we just making room for a massive echo chamber that can spread misinformation in a way that is very harmful to society?"

#scicomm #twitter #misinformation

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-07

"...it is an open secret in medicine that CPR is both brutal and rarely effective."

The Hidden Harms of CPR newyorker.com/news/the-weekend

Studies show pop culture representations of CPR create false expectations.

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-08-07

How Fake Science Sells Wellness nytimes.com/2023/07/26/well/li

Me: 'scienceploitation' = "how brands borrow language from emerging areas of science to market unproven products."

And don't fall for "single study" syndrome. Body of evidence!

#scicomm #science #wellness #pseudoscience

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-07-26

We are in the midst of a worldwide knowledge crisis...

We need to empower children with critical thinking skills, and we need to do it now.

My new piece: Teach kids about misinformation  macleans.ca/society/misinforma (t.co/7njjSK7HoI)

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-06-09

Our new study: The influence of sociodemographic factors on COVID-19 vaccine certificate acceptance tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10

Lowest acceptance:
- visible minority
- rural
- politically conservative
- 18-34 yrs of age
- trade or apprenticeship education

#vaccines #vaccineswork #publichealth #scicomm

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-05-31

Infuriating.

"Advertisements exploited the hope of patients with terminal and poor prognoses by sharing testimonials of past patients..."

More regulation & regulatory action needed.

Our new study: Advertising Alternative Cancer Treatments and Approaches on Social Media infodemiology.jmir.org/2023/1/

#alternativemedicine #Cancer #scicomm #misinformation #patients #pseudoscience

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-05-21

Misinformation + ideology = tough combo!

"A strong partisan bias emerged for both veracity judgments and sharing decisions..."

"...sharing decisions were largely unaffected by actual information veracity."

"...partisan bias was a stronger & more reliable predictor of #misinformation susceptibility than truth sensitivity."

See: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/369720.

#ScienceUpFirst #SciComm #Science #polarization #publichealth #ideology

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-05-20

Excellent.

How Science Gets Drawn Into Global Conspiracy Narratives issues.org/science-mrna-conspi

"...unchecked spread of these conspiratorial narratives could severely undermine the networks of trust on which society is built."

"Conspiracy narrative convergence" = 1 conspiracy becomes many.

#conspiracytheory #scicomm #science #twitter #echochamber

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-05-20

Often referenced "masks do harm" study retracted.

See: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33

Editors: "...complaints were valid ... the article does not meet the standards of editorial & scientific soundness..."

Will likely live on as a zombie & the retraction will become part of a conspiracy narrative.

#publichealth #masks #scicomm #vaccineswork #science #retraction

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-04-25

My new piece...

#Misinformation has done and is continuing to do serious harm. It is killing us.

Many studies and academic reports, including a 2023 analysis by the Council of Canadian Academies (which I co-authored), have concluded that health misinformation also has profound and adverse social, psychological and economic impacts. In general, both the public and health-care professionals agree.

healthydebate.ca/2023/04/topic #publichealth #vaccines #vaccineswork #science #scicomm

Timothy CaulfieldCaulfieldTim@noc.social
2023-04-21

"The problematic reframing of public health measures on social media, in the popular press and by politicians contributes to real harm and has set a dangerous precedent."

"Lockdown revisionism has tended to frame public health measures as a form of subjugation by elites, while positioning public health as oppressive and fundamentally anti-individualistic."

Our new paper: COVID-19 #lockdown revisionism cmaj.ca/content/195/15/E552 #COVID #PublicHealth #science #ScienceUpFirst

Client Info

Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst