Covid-19 and error information – Denmark against errors
In recent weeks, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which is the National Institute of Public Health’s sister institute in Denmark, has stepped up its efforts to spread misinformation about the corona situation in Denmark on social media.
In particular, they are digital clashes with epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding which has stood out. While Feigl-Ding has close to 700,000 followers on Twitter, SSI has only 20,000 followers on the platform.
– Of course, we are concerned about the spread of misinformation when it happens on the basis of data from SSI. Therefore, we have also actively gone into some Twitter threads to tell what the numbers look like in Denmark. It seems that we have become a piece in an American debate on reopening, but that of course does not justify distorting or abusing our numbers, says press officer Flemming Platz at SSI to Dagbladet and continues:
– In particular, we have emphasized that omikron has changed the rules of the game and the way we should look at the infection. An increased proportion of hospitalizations and deaths will not occur due to covid-19, even if one has a positive PCR test.
– What consequences can such a dissemination of misinformation have?
– SSI is a research and emergency preparedness institute that works on a daily basis in an international environment. It can be harmful if the misinformation casts doubt on the credibility and professionalism of the Danish health authorities, and therefore we should also react to that kind, says press manager Platz.
Collision
One of the clashes between SSI and Feigl-Ding took place February 15th.
– Jesus Christ. Danish politicians have completely lost their heads and removed all infection control measures against covid-19. This is exponential growth of deaths, not cases of infection! This is what happens when heads of state gaslighter their own population, Feigl-Ding wrote in a Twitter message and to the subject “CovidIsNotOver”.
Feigl-Ding referred to a graph from Our World in Data, where he compared the number of covid-19 deaths per million inhabitants in Denmark with in the world. The graph showed with an amount of covid-19-associated deaths has increased sharply in Denmark in recent months, but SSI had an important clarification:
– Dear Erik. Once again, we want to say that the numbers you share with your followers show deaths with covid-19, not the number of deaths due to covid-19, black SSI in a Twitter message and referred to its own weekly report for more information.
The Danes have also set up one information page where they refute common misconceptions about the corona situation in Denmark.
The situation in Norway
Director Frode Forland at the National Institute of Public Health tells Dagbladet that they have observed the Twitter debate. Forland has noticed that it is especially about American professionals and Twitter users who seem to be surprised, and criticizes Denmark for having removed the corona measures at the same time as the infection rates are high.
– We have also put SSI’s answers online, and think it is good, says Forland to Dagbladet.
– We have not observed the same criticism of Norway on Twitter, but it may of course have come without us being tagged or putting it. We are somewhat behind Denmark in the course of the pandemic, so the criticism can come and we will follow.
Forland says that FHI discusses this regularly in meetings with the Nordic public health institutes. He also says that FHI has prioritized editor-controlled media and Facebook over Twitter because they believe that they meet the most people that way.
– We constantly assess whether there is a need to go out and clarify misunderstandings and dispel myths.
– Tongue straight in the mouth
Assistant health director Espen Rostrup Nakstad encourages keeping your tongue straight in your mouth.
– In this pandemic, there has been an incredible amount of information and discussion about everything, and a lot that has turned out not to be true. So my best tip is to make use of the supporting sources. If you want to know something about the situation in Denmark, for example, you can go to SSI’s websites.
– There are many who wonder about things, and it may happen that a study is overinterpreted, and that it means that it appears as an established truth in an online community. So you have to keep your tongue straight in your mouth, and be critical of sources, as you do when you read news otherwise.