Seema Yasmin

Stanford doctor’s new book fights medical myths

When Cambridge-trained physician and author Seema Yasmin started investigating outbreaks for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she noticed a troubling pattern: Children were falling severely ill or dying from vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles and whooping cough. Just as troubling was how these outbreaks were fueled by the spread of myths, rumors and outright lies about vaccines, Yasmin said, just as misinformation has swirled around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Yasmin, an Emmy winner and Pulitzer nominee, leads the Stanford Health Communication Initiative and has just published her third book, “Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall For Them.”

Q AQWhy are people drawn to medical myths?

The world is so uncertain. While scientists are quite comfortable in the uncertainty, humans like a complete narrative with the gaps filled in. The credible scientist will say that vaccines have saved millions of lives, but no medicine or treatment is 100 percent safe, whereas if someone comes up to you and says, “Vaccines are 100 percent dangerous” — it’s easier to believe that because there is so much certainty baked into that statement.

A big part of being human is tribalism. So, if everyone in your yoga class, your community, your kids’ school is saying, “I’m not getting my kid vaccinated,” it can be quite terrifying to be the outlier saying, “Didn’t you know there are millions of data points that show that vaccines are safe?”

We’ve all been told to listen to the science telling us to wear masks and social distance. Why isn’t that working for everyone?

AThe medical field often operates from what’s known as the knowledge-deficit model, in which doctors say, “I’m going to translate this complex information to a level that you will get,” and then the job is done, right? It doesn’t work that way. Whether we change behavior depends a lot on our biases.

QThat video from the Bakersfield doctors, who cited discredited data to argue against the first COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring — did that go viral because they were telling people what they wanted to hear at that moment?

AYes. But it’s complicated. There also were some countries in Asia that handled the pandemic very well without instituting massive lockdowns, but they had really robust testing programs and amazing contact tracing that allowed them to control it. In science, there always is a range of opinions and discourse. You also will see an evolution of ideas. So Dr. Fauci, back in February and March, said you don’t have to wear a mask, then in April and May, he was saying, “Please wear a mask.” It confused people, but he was doing what scientists do, which is assess the shifting landscape of evidence to make recommendations.