Outgoing National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that society was becoming anti-science because “untruths” are being normalized through social media.
Mitchell said, “With the rise of disinformation and misinformation, are we developing an anti-science animus in society?”
Fauci said, “The answer is yes. The short answer to your question.”
He added, “But the other thing is that there is so much misinformation that we were experiencing the normalization of untruths. There is so much disinformation that spreads predominately through social media that people just get so used to the untruth that it becomes normalized, which is really bad because then you don’t push back against it. You say that is just the way it is. That would be a terrible blow to society, and I believe to our democracy if all of a sudden people say, ‘Well, with the use? There’s so much on truth out there we might as well not even push back on it. It’s hopeless.’ We’ve got to not accept the normalization of untruths.”
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