Headlines For Nov. 12, 2021​

Who shares fake news? Political scientists, behavioral researchers and the media have said that political conservatives are largely responsible for the proliferation of misinformation. But although there is a documented association, not all conservatives share fake news or endorse such behavior. Such sweeping generalizations threaten to condemn everyone who subscribes to conservative values, and that, in turn, risks further and more dangerous polarization.

Vaccine misinformation concerning the coronavirus spike protein has again picked up in recent days. Vaccine skeptics and deniers have weaponized this medical term to deter people from trusting Covid-19 vaccines, which have been proven effective and safe.

Last week Pfizer published interim trial results for its experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which the company said reduced the chance of hospitalization or death for some adults by almost 90 per cent. The US pharmaceutical giant’s analysis included 1,219 adults who had been diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid-19 and who had at least one risk factor for developing severe disease.

With the Delta variant taking hold and COVID cases on the rise in mid-July, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, released an advisory declaring that misinformation was a serious health threat and urging Americans to help slow its spread during the pandemic and beyond.

On a recent episode of his podcast, Rick Wiles, a pastor and self-described “citizen reporter,” endorsed a conspiracy theory: that Covid-19 vaccines were the product of a “global coup d’état by the most evil cabal of people in thFrance24e history of mankind.”

1. Local fact-checking organizations expressed frustration about the lack of technical resources and staffing to sort through the maze of hate, disinformation, and misinformation appearing on their screens. Certain technical tools, like classifiers to automatically detect concerning information in local languages, weren’t deployed to “at-risk countries” like Ethiopia.

A video that has gone viral shows a woman on a plane demanding the removal of an unvaccinated passenger seated next to her. The video is actually a staged movie called “Covid Flight”. Also, some social media users claim that diesel-powered generators were used during the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

It’s the last day of the COP26 climate summit in Scotland. After two weeks of talks, the big question is: What will the 197 participating parties have to show for it all? Negotiators are working hard on the final details of the Glasgow Agreement, a set of climate pledges and priorities that COP26 President Alok Sharma says will be the main artifact by which history judges this key global meeting.