Social media sentiments can run strong — and wrong
False allegations have consequences. And yet, here we are again.
In Colorado last week, a young family was hurled into a national firestorm created by a single, powerful NBC News vigilante with an ideological ax to grind. “Investigative reporter” Brandy Zadrozny lit the fuse Feb. 6 with a Twitter post announcing that a 4-year-old had died of the flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 10,000 Americans have died of the flu this season. So what made this Colorado toddler’s tragic death newsworthy?
The NBC News journalist condemned the boy’s mom for having reached out to a Facebook health-centered parents’ group whose members recommended she not give her child Tamiflu medicine that a pediatrician had prescribed. Some commenters had advised home remedies, including essential oils and vitamin C. Zadrozny linked to her incendiary hit piece on the mom and the “Stop Mandatory Vaccination” Facebook group, which was titled: “On Facebook, anti-vaxxers urged a mom not to give her son Tamiflu. He later died.”
The toxic inference is clear: “Anti-vaxxers” are guilty of spreading online “misinformation” that led the mom to withhold a purportedly life-saving modern medicine — and Facebook is guilty for not stopping it.
Zadrozny is pressuring Facebook to shut down discussion groups she doesn’t like. She labels all vaccine skeptics conspiracy theorists without refuting facts or responding to journal citations and data. She uses her bully pulpit to harangue Facebook into censoring laypeople seeking medical alternatives.
Zadrozny quoted “experts” fretting about parents who discuss their objections to coercive mandates and missives of Big Pharma and Big Government. Her article sneered at “natural remedies.” The magic words “anti-vaxx” sent “Tamiflu” trending on Twitter.
The nicer messages called for the boy’s grieving mom to be arrested and imprisoned.
Lost in all of these crazed diatribes were some pertinent facts.
Zadrozny never actually interviewed the parents, Geneva Montoya and Najee Jackson Sr., and relied solely on the Facebook postings and information from their GoFundMe page without independently discovering whether they had changed course after Montoya had commented to the Facebook group. Nor did she independently verify whether the parents were “anti-vaxx.”
It turns out the entire family, except for 4-yearold Najee Jr., had been suffering from influenza B. A 10-month-old brother who had been running a high fever had been seen at my neighborhood Children’s Hospital in Colorado Springs the afternoon before Najee Jr. fell ill. Montoya told Fox31 TV in Colorado Springs: “We gave them the medicine we were instructed to give. We did everything.”
Those who have already prejudged the mom respond that she must be lying. What if she is telling the truth? And why hadn’t Zadrozny updated her story as of Feb. 11? I asked the online social media monitor that question publicly on Twitter, but she failed to respond by my deadline.
More to the point, it’s quackery to suggest Tamiflu would have saved Najee Jr.’s life. Researchers in Britain have concluded there is no evidence the medicine reduces mortality or hospitalizations. In 2006, the FDA updated the Tamiflu label indicating it could cause psychiatric problems. Japan banned Tamiflu for teenagers amid concerns.