Surgeon General\u00a0Vivek Murthy\u00a0on Thursday issued an advisory calling health misinformation an \u201curgent threat\u201d amid the COVID-19 vaccination push.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth misinformation is an urgent threat to public health,\u201d Murthy said in a statement. \u201cIt can cause confusion, sow distrust, and undermine public health efforts, including our ongoing work to end the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0advisory<\/a>, the first issued by the surgeon general during the Biden administration, calls for a range of sectors to take action.<\/p>\n One focus, tech companies:\u00a0<\/strong>It calls on technology and social media companies to do more to fight misinformation on their platforms, including redesigning algorithms to avoid amplifying misinformation and strengthening the monitoring of it.<\/p>\n The surgeon general pointed to\u00a0polling<\/a>\u00a0from the Kaiser Family Foundation finding that 67 percent of unvaccinated adults have heard a COVID-19 vaccine myth and either believed it or were not sure if it was true.<\/p>\n