• Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Reuters be like;

    Lemme just pour some cesium-132 impregnated napalm directly on the anti-vax cluster fuck.

    This is exactly the kind of article a responsible media organization does not publish. They know that this will be picked up by every anti-vax freak on the planet as evidence that the vaccine killed their family, their friends, their dog, them, and jesus. No one is going to read "one database flagged a small but significant suspicious correlation that merits further investigation" and actually treat that with any nuance or understanding.

      • wwiehtnioj [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        He was talking about Reuters not the medical researchers or journal. Routers chooses not to publish things all the time and not publishing something because it might not be fully substantiated yet and may cause public panic is perfectly in line with journalism ethics.

          • wwiehtnioj [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            laypeople don't read scientific journals. Sure some antivaxxers will link to it in their facebook rants which your average person will not read. Being on routers and other mainstream media is what gives mass exposure and credibility. The problem is that the antivax line will gain traction but it won't lose traction if and when futher studies show the opposite. Noone reads retractions or reevaluates previous information, the first thing published is either exclusively believed in perpetuity or believed in additional to later better information in a state of cognitive dissonance. Best path is to publish the most accurate information when a more complete picture it is available than every development which will lead to all manner of misunderstandings.

      • Plant [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Couldn't they wait til this is actually studied then write an article about? Rather then push it out now with a pretty inflammatory headline..

      • berrytopylus [she/her,they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Even if accept the idea that it has to be written on at this stage, which I don't, the story can wait until the information is looked over better, we still have the problem of how much better media needs to be about making it clear in their headlines that it shouldn't be a concern right now and even if the problem is real it's going to be very rare.