Stephanie's Story: How COVID Misinformation Affected One Family

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Stephanie was usually careful about her health and regular vaccinations. But then she got into sharing conspiracy-filled videos and fringe ideas. When COVID hit, misinformation put her and her husband at risk. Science correspondent and editor Geoff Brumfiel shares with Emily Kwong what he learned in reporting Stephanie's story.

You can follow Emily on Twitter @EmilyKwong1234 and Geoff at @GBrumfiel. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.1	Hey short waivers, Emily Quang here
0:06.6	with our science desk colleague, Jeff Brumfield.
0:08.8	Hi, Emily.
0:09.6	So we are approaching a pretty brutal milestone
0:12.3	in this pandemic.
0:13.3	Almost a million people in the US have died from COVID-19.
0:17.1	And the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates
0:19.3	that more than 230,000 of those deaths
0:22.5	could have been prevented by vaccination.
0:24.1	Yeah, I mean, it's just an enormous number.
0:26.6	It's really kind of hard to think about.
0:29.7	But today I just wanted to focus on one of those deaths,
0:33.0	a woman named Stephanie.
0:34.7	She died in December.
0:37.0	This is her daughter, Lori.
0:38.6	It's something I can't understand.
0:40.5	Still, I mean, there is no perfect puzzle piece for this.
0:45.2	I literally go through this all the time.
0:47.0	So we're only using first names of Lori
0:49.8	and the other family members to give them privacy as they grieve.
0:54.2	But the story is that Stephanie refused to get vaccinated
	...

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