Hello friends!
You know how people say you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet?
Well, that is ESPECIALLY important during a pandemic.
I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this but we really are living in unprecedented times. I know it seems like there is nothing but coronavirus news in your face all the time and that makes it difficult to figure out what/who to trust or even what to believe.
I’m going to try to outline a bit of a guide for how to critically evaluate news articles and other information. At the end of this post, I’ll include some of my favourite trusted sources.
First off, you need to know the most important thing in science.
Are you ready?
Good scientific research MUST BE PEER REVIEWED.
I’m going to say that again for the people in the back.
GOOD SCIENCE IS PEER REVIEWED!
So, what does that mean? It means that scientists have submitted their research to a scientific journal and other researchers in that field of research have read this work and agree that the conclusions are based on solid, concrete science.
Therefore, the gold standard of learning about science is to read it directly from its peer-reviewed source – scientific journals.
Scientific Journals
However, not all journals are created equal. Some are known to be better than others in terms of the peer-review process. The other problem is that scientific journals is not always accessible. I will be honest; reading scientific papers is not easy. Scientists use tons of jargon, field-specific abbreviations, and generally are not great about communicating their scientific findings to the general public. I do think that we, as scientists, need to be better at this part of our job. This is one of the reasons I have been discussing COVID-19 on my Instagram account.
Pre-prints
Pre-prints: the beautiful yet double-edged sword of the scientific world. Preprint services allow scientists to share their findings (and update them with ongoing data) before they undergo peer review. This is great because it means we are able to learn about new research as soon as possible but it also means that it hasn’t gone through that rigorous review process. Often news organizations report on these preprints as though they are fully complete and published scientific papers instead of recognizing that they are a work in progress.
Due to the fast-paced nature of the pandemic, new science is being released every day. I know some of you are frustrated with the fact that some information from government and health officials is changing almost daily but please be patient. It’s not their fault. The science is actually moving at an unprecedented rate. Every morning I wake up and there are many, many new papers to read. And that’s how I start my mornings these days: reading about SARS-CoV-2. Honestly, I feel bad for my computer; she has a lot of tabs open.
News
News media are great at getting information out to a large audience very quickly which, during a pandemic, is extremely important. BUT you need to remember a couple of things. Reporters are not usually scientists (not their fault at all) but you need to remember this. It means that their interpretation of scientific papers or pre-prints may not be totally accurate. I find this to be particularly true for news articles that get shared on Facebook.
Take this example. During my research methods class in second year of my undergrad, we had to do a project where we took a media article and compared what they said to the original peer-reviewed paper. The article we chose for our group project made the large claim on Facebook that taking turmeric cures depression. If you traced that news back to the original source, the peer-reviewed paper actually showed that turmeric was no more likely to have any effect on depression than a placebo sugar pill. So the reporter or journalist had probably not understood the article.
So, if you come across an article that has a very catchy headline like “Such-and-such a Drug Cures COVID-19,” you should be skeptical! First off, that’s a big claim to be making at all and second, even if it does, we should look at this in a little more depth before accepting the headline as true.
I’ll take you through my system of assessing news media (especially if it’s from Facebook). It’s not the only way to go about it and it probably isn’t perfect but I want all of you to be able to critically evaluate what you’re reading, even if it’s just a bit.
So when I find an article that makes some great claims, the very first thing I look at is what media outlet has shared it. If I don’t recognize the name or it sounds sketchy, I just don’t even bother looking into it further than that. If it’s a more reputable media source like CBC or BBC, then I might click on the link to find out more. If I do click on the link, then the next thing I do is to go straight through the article (without even reading it) to find the link to the scientific paper. If there’s no link, then I usually close the article and go on with my day. (If I’m really interested, then I might go digging on academic databases, but I’m a nerd.) If there is really great news, then all of the main media sources will report it and then you should be able to find the link!
Science Communicators
Science communicators are changing the way we learn about new research. These people have generally been trained as scientists and are therefore very skilled at interpreting scientific results. The people doing this kind of work are SO important. However, people make mistakes and you’re going to want to consider a few things before you trust them. (Susanna Harris has a great post on this on Instagram. You can find her @susannalharris.) There is almost no science that has an “always” or a “never” attached to it. Science is full of exceptions to rules. People who use the words “always” or “never” are probably not to be trusted for scientific information. Make sure these communicators are citing their sources (peer-reviewed ones), admitting any mistakes, being upfront with their area of expertise, and updating what’s known as research progresses.
One last thing to remember is that good scientists admit when they don’t know something. No one can know everything and good scientists should admit that.
My Favourite sources:
Get your information from scientists, infectious disease doctors, the government, or reputable news sources.
Peer-reviewed scientific literature
Many scientific journals have made their papers related to COVID-19 open-access so anyone can find them on the internet and read them!
Government Agencies:
- WHO (@WHO on twitter)
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO (@DrTedros on twitter)
- Health Canada and PHAC (@GovCanHealth on twitter)
- Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada (@CPHO_Canada on twitter)
- Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health (@PattyHajdu on twitter)
Science Communicators/Science Communication:
- Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell on twitter)
- Dr. Samantha Yammine (@heysciencesam on twitter, science.sam on Instagram)
- Nature Briefings (You can subscribe and get one e-mail a day with major scientific developments, not only related to COVID-19.)
- Alan Dove (@alandove on twitter)
Podcasts
- This Week in Virology
- This Podcast Will Kill You (@tpwky on twitter)
Scientists:
- Dr. Jason Kindrachuk (@KindrachukJason on twitter)
- Dr. Florian Krammer (@florian_krammer on twitter)
- Dr. Ian MacKay (@MackayIM on twitter)
- Dr. Alyson Kelvin, Canadian virologist working on a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (@akelvinlab on twitter)
- Dr. Vincent Racaniello, host of This Week in Virology (@profvrr on twitter)
Please don’t share information on social media that hasn’t been backed up with peer-reviewed science! Also, sharing conspiracy theories does nothing but spread fear.
If you ever wonder if something you’re reading is good science, reach out and ask questions. Anyone can be a scientist – you just have to be willing to ask the hard questions.
Remember to be skeptical, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home.
H.
