anti-vaxxers

How do you stop the spread of anti-science rhetoric? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Paul Mecurio break down disease prevention and the rise of anti-science with physician and global health expert, Peter Hotez.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: 
https://startalkmedia.com/show/immunizing-against-anti-science-with-peter-hotez/

Thanks to our Patrons Ivan Stanic, Jeff Collins, HD, Matthew Steinberger, Michael Tikalsky, Kin Chan, and Cynthia Cook for supporting us this week.

How does disinformation spread in the age of COVID-19? It takes an expert like Renée DiResta to trace conspiracy theories back to their source. She’s already exposed how Russian state actors manipulated the 2016 election, but that was just a prelude to what she’s seeing online today: a convergence of state actors and lone individuals, anti-vaxxers and NRA supporters, scam artists and preachers and the occasional fan of cuddly pandas. What ties all of these disparate actors together is an information ecosystem that’s breaking down before our eyes. We explore what’s going wrong and what we must do to fix it in this interview with Renée DiResta, Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory.