Fighting Misinformation; Taking Time to Unwind

On July 15, Dr. Vivek Murthy released the first surgeon general’s advisory of his tenure in the Biden administration, describing what he called the “urgent threat of health misinformation” hindering the U.S. response to the pandemic with the rise of the delta variant.

“Surgeon general advisories are reserved for urgent public health threats,” he said during a White House briefing. “And while those threats have often been related to what we eat, drink and smoke, today, we live in a world where misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health.”

He called out big tech companies and urged them to play a more significant role in combating health misinformation on their platforms. “When we talk to people who believe some of these myths about the COVID-19 vaccine, about COVID itself, and ask them where to get that information, many of them point to their social media platforms,” he said in a subsequent interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

Murthy said that he wants to see algorithms on social media posts tweaked to demote wrong information and companies to share more data with outside researchers and the government.

Often, as he pointed out, the simplest way to stop the spread is for a consumer not to share something questionable that they read online. “If you’re not sure, not sharing is often the prudent thing to do,” Murthy said.

The advisory provides steps to help people and organizations better identify and avoid sharing health misinformation, engage with the community on the issue and develop local strategies against misinformation. You can find “Confronting Health Misinformation” via HHS.gov.

PRSA has also been doing its part to help slow the spread of false information. This past spring, PRSA launched Voices4Everyone, a strategic initiative that supports a national conversation building mutual understanding, trust and civic engagement through more inclusive civil discourse.

Voices4Everyone provides tools that communicators can use to help stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation and resources to test and build media literacy. Visit the site for updates: voices4everyone.prsa.org.

Time to unwind and heal

It has been a difficult past 17 months, as many of us have lived in a perpetual state of disruption, uncertainty and grief. In the pages ahead, we address various health and wellness topics, including managing difficult emotional moments, designing a productive morning routine and avoiding burnout. 

And in our question-of-the-month feature, we asked three PRSA members: “What are your favorite ways to unwind or unplug after the workday?”

For the first time since we debuted this feature in January 2018, one of the respondents asked me what I did after a day of work. I was momentarily stumped! But then I started thinking more about it. Here’s my — slightly edited — response: 

“It depends on the day! I bike to and from the office, so there’s that. I sometimes take a longer route home. I’m also a big Pilates fan; I take classes several times a week. Other times, it might be something as simple as a walk.”

If you’d like to respond to a future question, please let me know via email: john.elsasser@prsa.org. 

Meanwhile, I wish you the best for a happy and healthy rest of summer — and 2021.