The Top Threat To Americans’ Health Is Not A Virus. It’s Disinformation

Forbes March 12, 2024
Arthur L. Kellermann

Over the past 120 years, we’ve developed countermeasures to reduce or nearly eliminate many diseases that decimated humanity for millennia. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical disinformation threatens to undo this progress.

In the 20^th century, the average life expectancy of Americans increased by 30 years; 25 of them were due to public health. Vaccines played a major role, but other advances helped. Adding folate to foods dramatically reduced neural tube defects in newborns. Safer cars and better roadways cut fatal crashes per mile traveled by 90%. A multipronged campaign to discourage smoking spared 8 million Americans early deaths from cancer, heart disease and emphysema.

Unfortunately, we became a victim of our own success. The public,...

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