The Internet Trap

            The Internet can be a marvelous source of information on almost any subject, but it is also the source of a great deal of misinformation. But you already knew that. Things will only get worse as Artificial Intelligence becomes a major tool for the bad guys whose goal is to alarm, mislead or entrap us.

            A recent example of seeming ignorance of the subject matter is a photo calling attention to the recent outbreak of measles that showed a child not with the rash of measles, but of chickenpox. A simple error, probably not intentional.

            An article that raised alarm about bubonic plague as if it portended the return of the Black Death failed to point out that there are, on average, about seven cases per year of this illness in the United States and that a myriad of small animals, especially in the Southwest, carry the bacterium known as Yersinia pestis. A risk, to be sure, for persons hiking or camping in places such as our local Palomar Mountain area. Fortunately, the conditions that led to one of the most deadly pandemics in history simply do not exist in the First World. Even in Madagascar, an economic and political basket case if there ever was one, which has been experiencing a smoldering outbreak of bubonic plague since 2015, the cases are in the hundreds, not thousands.

            Since the first months of the COVID pandemic we have heard reports of the dangers of the recently developed vaccines, one strongly suggesting that “white clots” caused by the vaccines are killing people. It has been thoroughly debunked but like the aspartame hoax of thirty years ago (the Nancy Markle hoax) it continues to linger.

            A rule of thumb regarding health-related matters on the Internet: limit your searches to web sites associated with medical centers, universities or the CDC, using suffixes such as edu or gov. Regarding the CDC, whose reputation has been severely tarnished, keep in mind that mundane articles regarding the symptoms and signs of diseases, statistical information, treatment, etc., are produced by rank and file scientists, not the politically or financially motivated people at the top. These days it’s easy to verify almost anything by going to other trusted sites.