Battling disinformation on the front lines of the pandemic: Physicians’ dual roles as healers and CML educators

Abstract

Abstract“I got the vaccine, and it gave me COVID!” said the elderly woman who was vaccinated the day prior to her emergency department visit. A woman in her 50s, sitting at the bedside of her husband who is profoundly short of breath and barely able to speak due to COVID, states that neither of them will ever get vaccinated because “We don't want a vaccine that's going to mess with our DNA.” Another younger patient who arrived after an accident and required the operating room for his fracture repair states “COVID‐19 doesn't exist. I refuse testing,” after being informed of the hospital policy to test all patients going to the operating room. These statements are just the tip‐of‐the‐iceberg in the battle between COVID misinformation and patient care. In this article, the authors will address the history of misinformation and the education theories behind them, link these theories to COVID misinformation, and provide strategies on how to dispel COVID misinformation in the front lines.