Dave Scales & Jack Gorman - January 20, 2021

Dave Scales, MPhil, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College & Jack Gorman, MD, President & Co-Founder, Critica LLC, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Franklin Behavioral Health Consultants, "Combating Covid-19 vaccine misinformation online"

Along with his collaborators at Critica (https://www.criticascience.org/​), Dr. David Scales’ goal is to empower clinicians and scientists to combat misinformation around COVID-19 and the critical vaccination efforts currently underway. While public trust in institutions has been eroded on many fronts, Dr. Scales posits that physicians are still trusted highly by their patients, and should leverage this trust appropriately to combat misinformation around the pandemic. Effective responses to misinformation are setting-dependent: in the clinic, motivational interviewing techniques have proven quite effective; online, however, Dr. Scales and Critica recommend following the guidelines of the WHO for dealing with misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Sales identifies several themes and “techniques” commonly found in misinformation, and provides a framework for tailoring effective responses.