It’s been one year since I revamped my website and launched this substack, and now there are over 10,000 of you here! Your time (and inbox space) are valuable, and I’m honored that you’ve decided this newsletter is worthy of it. To help make this newsletter
I am a binge reader — either a book captures my attention enough to complete in one weekend, or it sits on my shelf unread for months. This weekend I read a book that was the former, and so I decided to try something. Welcome to the first You Can Know
A new study suggests trust may actually increase One of the most difficult parts of science communication is effectively communicating uncertainty. The scientific method is a powerful tool that over time leads us to the right answer, but it sometimes gets things wrong along the way. When we talk about
I recently gave a talk on vaccine communication, and the most common feedback I got was appreciation for the section on words that confuse people. I’ve written before how a lot of “misinformation” can more aptly be described as miscommunication — public health saying one thing, and the public hearing
On Wednesday RFK Jr.’s CDC updated their website to claim that “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not definitively ruled out the possibility. On the surface, this may seem like a valid scientific statement. There have been dozens of studies investigating links
Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with my friend Matt Lanza (meteorologist and author of Space City Weather, The Eyewall, and Lanza's Stanzas) about the shift to new media that’s unfolding in the world of weather and public health (and everywhere else). Even though we are
It’s rare that an article has me nodding so much my neck hurts—but this one did. If you care about getting accurate health information to the public, I highly recommend you read it too. Titled ‘For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communication Strategies’ by Renée DiResta
RFK Jr’s vaccine panel is meeting this week, and there is widespread concern they may vote to remove the first vaccine on the childhood immunization schedule: the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Currently, it's recommended that newborns receive the first dose of the hepatitis B
The word ‘misinformation’ entered my regular vocabulary around the time it did for much of the country — March 2020. Discovering my newfound love for explaining science and addressing COVID rumors online, that seemed to be the logical term to use. “Misinformation alert!” “Fact check!” “This has been debunked!” became common
A blog about science in a world of untrue facts.
It depends on which "science" we're even talking about Should science stay out of politics—or is science inherently political? When is advocacy appropriate for scientists, and is it even possible to separate the two? These questions have been debated for years in the world of
Yesterday I joined one of my friends (and mentor!) Dr. Jeremy Faust on his show The Doctor's Lounge – we chatted about health communication, my new NEJM article on the need to integrate communications training into medical and graduate schools, and why health communication is so challenging right now.
Our new NEJM piece on the need for formal training for informal communication I made my very first “science communication” post on March 10, 2020. I was trying to understand what was really going on with COVID, and at the time the best public data was a crowd-sourced google sheet.
Welcome to installment #2 of That’s a Great Question. Every month or so, I’ll highlight a thoughtful reader question that reflects a common concern or confusion—and answer it in depth here. Have a question you’d like considered? Comment below or email me at kristen@youcanknowthings.com.
Yesterday marks 6 months since the start of sweeping cuts to America’s health and science infrastructure. Changes have come so quickly (and confusingly) in the midst of an already chaotic news cycle, it has been hard to keep up with the scope of the shifts that are taking place.
An updated hierarchy of evidence for the age of memes, rumors, and AI hallucinations I’ve been dissecting science rumors and flawed studies for five years now, and there is one communication challenge that I have run into over and over again. For any given scientific claim or study, it&
A version of this article originally appeared on Your Local Epidemiologist. Like “misinformation” and “disinformation,” the phrase “doing your own research” has become deeply polarizing. To some, it’s a call to think critically about health information and do their due diligence before making health decisions. To others—especially in
Robert F Kennedy Jr. has fired the entire panel that oversees vaccine recommendations in the US and replaced them with his own picks, including prominent vaccine skeptics. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, RFK Jr. announced his decision to fire all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory
Last month I wrote an article about shame and why criticizing "anti-vaxxers" backfires, and I got some great comments and feedback from you. Some of the questions were so thoughtful, they deserve an in depth response, so I've decided to try out something new. Instead of
Last week the government released the "The MAHA report," a lengthy document that attempted to explain the rise of chronic disease in children. Yesterday, it was discovered that some of the studies cited in the report simply do not exist. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report suggests
This week, a new proposal for COVID vaccines was announced that—if implemented—will likely mean many healthcare workers like me will no longer have access to COVID shots. Two new FDA appointees announced the change via an opinion article in the New England Journal of Medicine: COVID boosters will
If you talk to people about why they lost trust in public health, there is one topic that comes up over and over again: mandates. For many during the pandemic, the choice wasn’t simply get a COVID vaccine or risk getting sick, it was get a COVID vaccine or
