Twitter and the Spread of Pseudoscience and Quackery Health Message

Pseudoscience, quackery and alternative facts on health issues have been an ongoing problem for Twitter, the popular social media platform. This was brought into sharp focus with the Ebola outbreak in 2013 and worsened with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes the task of reliably reporting on health issues by scientists more difficult and confusing for the audience.

Furthermore, the rapid spread of unproven pseudoscience on social media can have dire effects on the health of populations including an increase in death rates. George Claassen of the Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch published an article in Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology which looked at the problem and suggested ways in which this can be countered.