What's the harm?

A recent survey of 16,000 people across 16 countries suggested that around 70 per cent of us believe at least one false medical claim. Being the kind of person who holds potentially unhelpful or even dangerous beliefs about what health is and how to obtain it is no longer something which happens on the fringes of society. It’s happening in our homes, our offices, our parks and school playgrounds. If you’re unlucky, it’s happening in your family already.

The harm caused by health misinformation varies. Sometimes, it’s just about wasted time or money, but a 2023 study found that 75 per cent of Youtube videos and 50 per cent of TikTok videos about birth control discouraged using it. Recent data from Wales shows a drop in the number of women using hormonal contraception, and a rise in the number of abortions; researchers linked this to contraception misinformation. In 2023, a couple of momfluencers racked up millions of views on TikTok claiming that pregnancy turns your sweat blue and makes your teeth fall out. TikTok and Instagram are littered with posts about turmeric to fight inflammation, but the Australian Government and the US Drug Liver Injury Network have both warned about a rise in liver injuries from taking turmeric supplements. Dermatologists are reporting higher numbers of people with sun damage after scare stories were circulated about sunscreen causing skin cancer rather than preventing it. Anti-vaccine messaging coupled with promotion of high doses of vitamin A as a vaccine substitute has resulted in American kids ending up in hospital not just with measles, but also with vitamin A toxicity, while homemade vegan baby milks have resulted in infant deaths and bone abnormalities.

Studies have found that over half of mental health advice on TikTok and 45 per cent of nutrition posts on Instagram contain inaccurate or dangerous information (one post claimed eating an orange in the shower can treat anxiety).

Misinformation is not new – the smallpox vaccine was rumoured to turn people into cows in the 1800s – but recently our understanding of health has shifted from away from being expert-led and evidence-based, to being guided by ideology and opinions – opinions which now spread at hyper-speed across social media and straight into the mouths of the AI chatbots that 1 in 6 of us (and 25 per cent of younger people) regularly use for healthcare advice. Trust in institutions – like healthcare – is dropping, while trust in personalities is rising fast.

I’ve been writing about health and nutrition for more than two decades. As a direct result, I receive health misinformation all the time: when I wrote about how badly menopause supplements are legislated in the UK, my feeds filled up with sponsored posts about exactly the products I was investigating; when I started writing a book on allergies I was fed content saying probiotics and local honey can ‘cure’ them (there is no evidence for either).