Viewpoints: AI Is Worsening The Medical Misinformation Crisis; Telehealth Needs Closed Captioning
Editorial writers discuss misinformation, telehealth, pandemic treaties, and more.
Bloomberg:
Fake Science Generated By Paper Mills Will Get Worse With AI
Faking it until you make it may be a common practice in some careers. But it’s clearly unethical for scientists and medical researchers. All the same thousands of fake papers are churned out by so-called paper mills and published every year, many of them in peer-reviewed journals. (F.D. Flam, 5/25)
Stat:
Achieving Telehealth Equity For People With Hearing Loss
Gen Z has made captioning cool. Captions are now widely available in social media, entertainment channels, and web conferencing platforms, including YouTube, Hulu, and Zoom. Yet, there is one extremely important place where captions are not regularly available: telehealth visits. This disproportionately affects people with hearing loss. (Zina Jawadi, Alex Chern, and Stephen McInturff, 5/28)
Stat:
The World Needs The New Pandemic Treaty
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, 25 heads of government issued an extraordinary call for a new international treaty for preventing, preparing for, and responding to pandemics. For two years, World Health Organization member states have been negotiating an international agreement scheduled for adoption at the World Health Assembly this month. Yet, late Friday in Geneva, negotiations ground to a halt. While most of the draft treaty text was “greened,” meaning accepted by the parties, member states failed to reach consensus on critical issues. (Alexandra Phelan and Lawrence O. Gostin, 5/27)
Miami Herald:
Trump’s Musing On Birth Control Restrictions Is A Red Flag In Post-Roe Reality
There is a widespread misconception that emergency birth control stops a pregnancy and that IUDs prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus (they don’t), according to KFF, an independent healthcare policy nonprofit. That misinformation, coupled with the language of some abortion bans in states like Tennessee, may already be used to limit access to contraceptives, KFF says. (Isadora Rangel, 5/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Lawmakers Say A New Biosecurity Bill Will Protect Us From China. They’re Wrong
The U.S. drug supply is inexorably linked to China. Most biotech and pharma companies use Chinese contract drug manufacturing organizations to obtain raw materials, components and active pharmaceutical ingredients. A recent survey by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization found that of 124 biopharma companies surveyed, 79% had China-based or owned manufacturing partners. (Chirag Asaravala, 5/23)
