Surgeon General: Physicians Can Help Combat Health Misinformation

The advisory calls on physicians and other health care practitioners to leverage their role as highly trusted professionals by proactively addressing health misinformation with patients and the public. Clinicians are advised to “take the time to understand each patient’s knowledge, beliefs, and values. Listen with empathy, and when possible, correct misinformation in personalized ways.”

“The spread of health misinformation is an urgent and significant matter of health for the nation—as well as for communities around the world,” Joshua Morganstein, M.D., chair of APA’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, told Psychiatric News. “With this advisory, the surgeon general has chosen to elevate what is clearly an enduring and increasing barrier to health care.”

Physicians may need to shift their approach to combat health misinformation. Morganstein said a growing body of evidence suggests that citing facts, figures, and statistics is not effective at changing people’s minds. “In fact, when we spout data points, it may actually be increasing patients’ mistrust in us,” he said.

Some physicians, however, may believe it is not their job to try to change patients’ minds and that their role is only to make recommendations, he added. However, “when we come from that perspective, we will miss a lot of opportunities to work with patients on many different aspects of their health. When we don’t ask patients ‘What are your concerns about my recommendations?’ or ‘What are the worries you have about this medication?,’ we can be sure they will get the answers somewhere else, and most likely it will be from a far less informed source than we are.”

Historically, people with serious mental illness (SMI) are an undervaccinated population: Only 25% of adults with SMI get a flu shot each year, compared with almost 50% of other adults. Earlier this year, APA urged states to prioritize coronavirus vaccination for people with SMI because of their increased risk of being hospitalized and experiencing serious complications including death.

“When it comes to willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, a clear and unambiguous recommendation from a person’s trusted health care professional remains a significant factor in moving people from hesitancy to willingness to accept vaccines,” Morganstein said. “It is important that psychiatrists make those recommendations.” (See “Vaccination Conversations: Influencing Critical Health Behaviors in COVID-19” here.)

He prefers “nudging” patients toward gradual vaccine acceptance utilizing established principles of behavioral science. “The more precisely you understand what motivates a patient, … the more effectively you can tie any recommendations back to that.” For example, he said, people who are motivated by social norms could be told, “Two-thirds of the people in your community have already been fully vaccinated,” he said. Those who fear losing an opportunity could be warned, “As soon as boosters are required, it may become difficult for people to get their first series of shots.”

According to polls done by KFF, some of the most pervasive myths surrounding the shots are that the vaccine can cause COVID-19 infection (36%) or infertility (31%). Other prevalent myths include that the vaccine can change an individual’s DNA or that people who have had COVID-19 should not get vaccinated, KFF wrote. Also, more than half of unvaccinated adults (52%) aren’t aware the vaccines are free.

Morganstein said, “People have stories about the vaccines that they’re telling themselves if they haven’t gotten vaccinated yet. For example, ‘My mother had a terrible reaction to the vaccine’ or ‘I might be inserted with a microchip.’ If we don’t know what those stories are, then we can’t help them.” ■