Are doctors too clever to fall for fake coronavirus news?
Not according to German researchers, who were ‘surprised’ to discover they fared no better than non-healthcare professionals
Doctors are just as susceptible to fake COVID-19 news as the average Joe, warn German researchers.
To test how well healthcare professionals, healthcare students assessed coronavirus-related news compared with non-healthcare professionals and students, the researchers devised eight fake news stories that twisted the facts from true lay news articles.
They then asked the 2,000 participants to identify the eight correct stories from the matched pairs.
One of the false stories claimed the vice governor of Texas, USA, had mandated long pants (minimum leg length about 51cm) on the back of Australian Dr Norman Swan’s comments that the virus could be transmitted in droplets released by a fart.
