Misinformation goes Viral

Jason Shepherd
The Startup
Published in
9 min readApr 13, 2020

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Self Isolation has led many to delve into crackpot theories that go from man-made viruses to spread of infections via 5G cell phone towers. Now, those that are rational are already asking the right questions and seeking legit sources of information…but more and more people are losing it. Feel free to use the information in this story to educate your friends. This pandemic is stressful enough without people confabulating nonsense!

UPDATE 4/29: If the information below isn’t enough for you. If you believe I have some sort of agenda because of my affiliations or funding, I encourage you to read this comprehensive article from Ed Yong (who is one of the best and impartial science journalists out there) on what we currently DO and DO NOT know about COVID19/SARS-COV-2.

I’ve found that people “listen” more if you have credentials, so while I’m not a fan of throwing letters at people…here are mine. I have a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. I did my postdoctoral work at MIT and am now an Associate Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Utah .

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Jason Shepherd
The Startup

Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology and holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair at the University of Utah. @jasonsynaptic www.shepherdlab.org