28

Online information on vaccines and autism not always reliable

6 years ago
Anonymous $cyhBy-qkd5

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180614213649.htm

Researchers carried out a search for 'vaccines autism' and then analysed the results for the top 200 websites. They found that people can get misinformed advice and information from the Internet, with 10%-24% of the websites analysed having a negative stance on vaccines (20% in the UK). Although searching on Google.com did not return such a website in the first 10 websites generated, searching on the UK and Australian versions of Google did.

Professor Pietro Ghezzi, Chair in Experimental Medicine at BSMS, who led the research, said: "This study reveals a pollution of the health information available to the public with misinformation that can potentially impact on public health. It also shows that weak scientific studies can have a detrimental impact on the public."