The Line · the University of Alberta Alumni Association

Episode 13: Pandemic and Paranoia With Timothy Caulfield, ‘87 BSc(Spec), ‘90 LLB

June 25, 2020·24 min·2 clips

Police investigate whether a couple torched cell towers, motivated by a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19.

Host Matt Ray opens with the real-world consequence of COVID-19 misinformation: seven cell towers set on fire in one week by people who believed 5G technology was linked to the virus. He reflects on his own youthful optimism that the internet would democratize truth, acknowledging he was wrong. Tim Caulfield, a University of Alberta law professor and research director of the Health Law Institute, is introduced as someone who has studied health misinformation for decades and has never seen conditions as extreme as the current pandemic moment. Caulfield describes a spectrum of COVID misinformation, from obviously false claims like drinking urine or bleach, to more plausible-sounding claims about immune boosting and vitamins, to genuinely complex cases like hydroxychloroquine where science hype and political endorsement distorted public understanding. He explains that social media has transformed from a hoped-for democratizing force into largely a polarization machine, citing research to support this. Caulfield notes that the pandemic is the first to occur during the social media era and during an already-established era of fake news, which is why the WHO coined the term 'infodemic.' He details tangible harms from misinformation including deaths, poisonings, property damage, increased stigma, and wasted scientific and policy resources. On vaccines, Caulfield calls them the single greatest achievement of biomedicine and expresses daily frustration that misinformation undermines them. He acknowledges that hardcore anti-vaxxers cannot be persuaded and says the goal should be preventing them from spreading hesitancy to the undecided. Survey data from the time showed roughly 27% of Americans and a similar share of Canadians were unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine, numbers Caulfield calls incredible and depressing. He warns that rushing a COVID vaccine without proper clinical trials or safety analysis could damage confidence not just in that vaccine but in all vaccines. Caulfield addresses the public confusion caused by shifting guidance, such as on mask wearing, arguing that science is a process rather than a fixed list of facts, and that changing recommendations based on new evidence is a badge of honor, not a failure. He criticizes the tendency to portray scientific conclusions as definitive when evidence is still emerging, advocating instead for transparent communication of uncertainty. On social media reform, Caulfield expresses support for freedom of expression while calling for independent oversight of whatever mechanisms platforms implement, and notes that the 'backfire effect' — the idea that correcting misinformation entrenches it — is used by Facebook as an excuse not to act, despite weak empirical support. He argues that debunking and science communication do work when done well, and that the scientific community needs to be more present in public discourse. Finally, Caulfield recommends that science communicators adopt the storytelling, narrative, and social media sharing tactics used by misinformation spreaders, and advises focusing energy on the general public rather than on committed conspiracy theorists. The episode was recorded on June 11, 2020, when Alberta had 7,316 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

As heard by us

A steady look at how misinformation and vaccine hesitancy intensified during COVID.

The Line opens with a cell tower fire and uses it to trace how conspiracy theories, social media, and COVID uncertainty can feed each other. The University of Alberta misinformation expert gives the episode its clearest shape, laying out why misinformation moved so easily…

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Why you'd press play

When you want a clear map of how COVID misinformation turned into real-world harm.

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