NEWS Malaysia

The 90-minutes webinar on “Countering Scientific Misinformation: What is the role of the Scientific Community in this matter?” was a highly relevant topic as the impact of scientific information has become more prominent over the past few years as countries and communities grappled to manage and to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Plenty of myths, fake news, as well as bogus remedies about COVID-19 was spread rapidly through social media which has become one of the main platforms for dissemination of news among the general public today. The discussion session was moderated by Dr. Felicita Fedelis Jusof (Dept. of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia) and joined by three experts from Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.  

The first panelist was Dr. Yin Chung Au, an Assistant Professor in History of Science and Technology, NCKU, Taiwan has presented her thoughts on the misinformation and scientific uncertainties in a science communication perspective. In her talk, Dr. Au reminded us that the audience of science communication tends to be heterogeneous and that misinformation emerges in various ways and can arise from scientific uncertainty. In summary, she highlighted that the scientific community should know who they are talking to (target audience), know what medium or channel that is being used to communicate with the target audience, and know that humans are subjective and have emotions.

The second panelist was Prof. Dr. Abhi Veerakumarasivam, the Provost of Sunway University, Malaysia, and also the Chair of the International Network for Government Science Advise - Asia. In his first few slides, Prof. Dr. Abhi shared about the “Committee on addressing inaccurate and misleading information on biological threats through scientific collaboration and communication” and their role in the region. One of the objectives of the committee is to evaluate existing online platforms and virtual communities for sharing information about and analyzing data from biological events. He also shared on the different common terms in the topic which are: Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation. Prof. Dr. Abhi also echoed what was mentioned previously by Dr. Au on the importance in identifying the target audience. Once the audience has been identified and described, one must define the goals and objectives of the communication which include education, advocacy, awareness-raising, building trust, policy or research influence encouragement of change, and inclusion in a dialogue.

The final panelist of the webinar was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Viji Vijayan from DUKE – NUS Medical School, Singapore, and the topic of her presentation was on “Dealing with Misinformation”. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Viji shared and explained on the steps in addressing misinformation which includes four steps: 1) Evaluate the claims to determine whether scientific inaccuracies should be addressed, 2) Identify expertise needed to correct scientific inaccuracies, 3) Define the methods for correcting scientific inaccuracies, and 4) Communicate the correct information and uncertainties. Before ending her talk, she shared on the best practices for science communication; the actions that enhance and reduce the effectiveness of communicating science.

Among the participants were representatives from Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, De La Salle University, and Techological University of the Philippines. The webinar was broadcasted on Cisco Webex and via NCKU Overseas Hub in Malaysia’s Facebook page. The session was also recorded and now available online at https://fb.watch/f83oTLOgIM/. This was the second webinar in 2022 co-organized between the NCKU Overseas Hub in Malaysia’s and the Institutional Biosafety and Biosecurity Committee (IBBC), Universiti Malaya.