Are You Falling for Health Misinformation?

Chasing Life

CNN

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.4 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Covid-19 pandemic unleashed a new level of conspiracy theories and medical misinformation that some dubbed an ‘infodemic.’ Science influencer and infectious disease researcher Laurel Bristow made a name online de-bunking false claims. Now, five years after COVID was declared a pandemic, she joins Dr. Sanjay Gupta to talk about her new approach to spotting shoddy science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So your Instagram handle is at...
0:02.1	I mean, I'm sure everyone's asked you this.
0:05.0	Say it, Sanjay Gupta. Say it.
0:08.4	King gutter baby. King gutter baby.
0:11.0	Yes, it is.
0:12.8	I want to take you back three years ago, March 2021.
0:17.0	I sat down one day with someone who was making a name for herself on Instagram.
0:21.7	Her name is Laurel Bristow, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University.
0:27.0	The reason I wanted to talk to her at the time was because when the pandemic started,
0:31.5	she decided to step up, to use her background to answer questions about COVID online.
0:37.5	And the way that she did it was not only super informative,
0:41.4	but also pretty funny, a breath of fresh air in a pretty dark time.
0:46.0	Hello, my little cheesy gorditas and welcome to Monday.
0:48.8	Her account specifically focused on combating the rampant myths and conspiracy theories
0:53.8	that were circulating online at the time.
0:55.9	If you're going to send me a message that says,
0:58.5	why is no one talking about X or why is no one doing Y,
1:01.8	please make sure that's actually true before you do it.
1:04.2	Did you even Google anything?
1:06.6	I was trying to do my part as well to help people understand what was happening with the COVID pandemic.
1:12.4	Longtime listeners may remember that at that time, this podcast was a daily podcast, and it was named Coronavirus, Fact versus Fiction.
1:21.5	I really admired the way that Laurel was using a medium that was, unfortunately unfortunately the host of a lot of misinformation,
	...

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