Healthline: ‘Detox Bath’ won’t dilute the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine

UC expert commentary on how medical misinformation floods the internet

No, soaking in a bath of Borax and Epsom salts will not remove the COVID-19 vaccine from your body, medical experts say. 

headshot of Jeffrey Blevins

Jeffrey Blevins, PhD, head of the UC Department of Journalism, researches how medical misinformation spreads on social media. Photo/Higley/UC Creative + Brand.

The so called “detox bath” is just one of the many misinformation campaigns that has spread far and wide on social media during the pandemic; and experts like UC’s Jeffrey Blevins, head of the Department of Journalism, say this misinformation needs to be brought under control as much as the virus itself.

“Right now, we have to rely on the platforms to do it,”  Blevins told Healthline. But that isn’t enough, he said, because, “it’s a little too late. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it doesn’t really go back in.”

For society as a whole, Blevins said we may need to drill down and, instead of trying to change entire platforms, look at individuals. “We have to look at the individual influencers on these platforms,” he said, and disprove or remove them.

Blevins recently published a study on the spread of medical misinformation during the earlier stages of the pandemic

Read the Healthline article

Featured image soaking tub: Erik McClean/Unsplash.

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