New report warns how misrepresenting COVID-19 science may sow confusion and erode public trust

As we try to understand COVID-19 and look for solutions to the pandemic, the science and research community is conducting and sharing COVID-19 science at a furious pace. But this well-intentioned rush to share information has generated a churning sea of bad data, conflicting results and exaggerated headlines, according to a new report released today by the Royal Society of Canada Task Force on COVID-19. 

Let’s Do Better: Public Representations of COVID-19 Science warns that the relevant science on COVID-19 is being presented to the public in a way that is causing confusion, inappropriate expectations and, ultimately, eroding public trust.

The report looks at how researchers and media play a role in accurately disseminating findings and advances in COVID-19 research and calls on the community to do better. Recommendations from the task force include:


• more transparency about evidence, data and method

• placing findings and conclusions in the context of the broader evidence base

• correcting public misrepresentation of researcher’s work

• taking greater care in how research that hasn’t been peer-reviewed is represented in the public domain.

SFU’s Tania Bubela, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and co-author of the RSC Task Force on COVID-19 report, is available to speak on the report.

AVAILABLE SFU EXPERTS

Tania Bubela, professor and dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, tbubela@sfu.ca 

Expertise: Knowledge translation in health, biotechnology, and new technologies in biomedicine; impacts of innovation, commercialization/open science and intellectual property policies on scientific culture, and the conduct of translational research and clinical trials.

CONTACT

Matt Kieltyka,  SFU Communications & Marketing 
778.782.3210| matt_kieltyka@sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University 
Communications & Marketing | SFU Media Experts Directory 
778.782.3210

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