FDA’s own reputation could restrain misinformation fight

Continued from A3 direction,” on misinformation, particularly its “Just a Minute” series of factchecking videos, which feature FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks succinctly addressing a single Covid-19 myth or topic.

But how many people are seeing them?

“FDA’s YouTube videos have a minuscule audience,” said Brandon Nyhan, who studies medical misinformation at Dartmouth College. The people watching FDA videos “are not the people we typically think about when we think about misinformation.”

Research by Nyhan and his colleagues suggests that factchecking Covid-19 myths briefly dispels false beliefs, but the effects are “ephemeral.” Nyhan and other researchers noted the most trusted medical information source for most Americans is their doctor, not the government.

Even if the audience for FDA’s work is small, experts in online analytics say it may be having a bigger impact.

An FDA page dubbed “Rumor Control” debunks a long list of false claims about vaccines, such as that they contain pesticides. A Google search for “vaccines” and “pesticides” brings up the FDA’s response as a top result, because the search engine prioritizes credible websites.

“Because the FDA puts that information on its website, it will actually crowd out the misinformation from the top 10 or 20 Google results,” said David Lazer, a political and computer scientist at Northeastern University.

Perhaps the most promising approach to fighting misinformation is also the toughest to execute: introduce people to emerging misinformation and explain why it’s false before they encounter it elsewhere.

That technique, called “pre-bunking,” presents challenges for large government agencies.

“Is the FDA nimble enough to have a detection system for misinformation and then quickly put out pre-bunking information within hours or days?” Lazer asked.

Califf said the FDA tracks new misinformation trends online and quickly decides whether—and when—to intervene.

“Sometimes calling attention to an issue can make it worse,” he notes.

Other communication challenges are baked into how the FDA operates. For instance, the agency consults an independent panel of vaccine specialists on major decisions about Covid-19 shots, considered a key step in fostering trust in the process.

But some of those experts have disagreed on who should receive Covid-19 vaccine boosters or how strong the evidence is for their use, particularly among younger people.

The FDA then largely relies on news media to translate those debates and its final decisions, which are often laden with scientific jargon.

The result has been “utter confusion,” about the latest round of Covid-19 boosters, says Lawrence Gostin, a public health specialist at Georgetown.

“If you’re trying to counteract misinformation on social media your first job is to clarify, simplify and explain things in an understandable way to the lay public,” said Gostin. “I don’t think anyone could say that FDA has done a good job with that.”

But the decision to step back from power plays out against a background of intense hostility and scrutiny, particularly for women leaders. Sturgeon, Scotland’s longest serving first minister, said last year she was worried sexism could be putting women off political life, and that in some ways the issue has got worse since her career started decades earlier. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also said that Ardern encountered “a level of hatred and vitriol which in my experience is unprecedented in our country.”

Although social media has intensified the nature of criticism of politicians across the board, what female leaders face is unique, said Silvana KochMehrin, president and founder

By Victoria Milo & David Rising The Associated Press

BANGKOK—The 3-year-old boy had taken only two steps from his mother’s lap when a deafening explosion rang out. The blast caught the woman in the face, blurring her vision. She forced her eyes open and searched for her son around the jetty where they’d been waiting for a ferry, near their small village in southcentral Myanmar.

Through the smoke, she spotted him. His body lay on the ground; his feet and legs mangled with flesh peeled away, shattered bones exposed.

“He was crying and telling me that it hurt so much,” she said. “He didn’t know what just happened.” But she did.

The boy had detonated a landmine, an explosive device designed to mutilate or destroy whatever comes into its path.

Most countries have banned landmines for decades, since the UN Mine Ban Treaty was adopted in 1997. But in Myanmar, which isn’t party to the treaty, the use of mines has soared since the military seized power from the democratically elected government in February 2021 and armed resistance has skyrocketed.

Landmines are planted by all sides of the conflict in Myanmar, and they’re responsible for surging civilian casualties, including an alarming number of children as victims, according to an AP analysis based on data and reports from nonprofit and humanitarian organizations, interviews with civilian victims, families, local aid workers, military defectors and monitoring groups.

In 2022, UN figures show, civilian casualties from landmine and unexploded ordnance spiked by nearly 40 percent. Experts say this and other official tallies are vastly undercounted, largely due to difficulties monitoring and reporting during the conflict.

Despite incomplete numbers, experts agree the increase in Myanmar is the largest ever recorded.

Virtually no area is immune to the threat. Over the past two years, mine contamination has spread to

“Not only do you have the extremely complex and demanding job of running the country,” KochMehrin said, “you’re seen as representing women and that comes with a kind of specific gendered attacks.”

Women’s participation in politics across the world is still lagging.

As of September 2022, only 21 percent of government ministers were women, and gender parity won’t be reached for about half a century at the current rate of progress. Once in office, research suggests they have to contend with a greater amount of hostility than their male counterparts. Women elected officials are three times as likely to be targeted by abuse and harassment than their counterparts, according to a US study.

That’s partly because women are often judged on different criteria to men. “There is ample research that female leaders are scrutinized more harshly and held to a higher standard in their jobs,” said Michael Smets, a professor at Oxford University. This is the case “especially when they are trailblazers in their organizations—or nations,” he said.

One example of that kind of scrutiny came just last year, when a video emerged of Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin at a party. It was met with so much outrage that she was forced to take a drugs test in response to accusations of misconduct. Women in politics have also called out the harassment they face not just from the public, but within their profession: last year more than 120 politicians in Belgium signed an open letter condemning the “sexist, sexual and psychological violence by government officials” faced by some on a daily basis.

The growing challenges for women in political life contrasts with efforts to have better gender representation among decision makers because of the attached benefits. Women policy makers prioritize issues that benefit the most vulnerable in society, such as healthcare, welfare and education, according to research by King’s College London: in India for example, there were 62 percent more drinking water projects in areas with women-led councils than in councils led by men. As Scotland and New Zealand figure out the legacy of their leaders, and what direction they will take next, Sturgeon’s and Ardern’s resignations provide an opportunity to re-evaluate what we expect from our leaders, KochMehrin said. “It’s about what kind of political environment do we have, what kind of leaders are successful in that?” she said. “People should not be afraid to go into politics.” With assistance from Ella Ceron and Kelsey Butler/Bloomberg small family-run plot in Shan state. They’d just left to dig for sweet potatoes when the father of one of the boys heard a blast. He rushed to help but was too late. They’d been killed instantly. They’d triggered a mine.

The father, 47, tears up when he returns to the fields.

“But it’s my family’s business, so I have to come to the farm to make a living,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself and his relatives.

IN

Myanmar on December 7, 2022. The boy lost his legs in a landmine blast in July 2022. He speaks frequently about the blast, but his mother isn’t sure he’ll ever process what happened. “Maybe he still doesn’t understand,” she said. “He is still young.” every state and region except for the capital city, Naypyitaw, according to Landmine Monitor, a group that tracks global landmine use.

The military also uses civilians as human shields, a practice widespread in the country for decades but raising alarms with increasing mine incidents. AP’s analysis found the military, known as the Tatmadaw, forced people to walk ahead of troops to detonate potential landmines in their path, protecting their own troops.

The Myanmar military, which has acknowledged mine use in the past, didn’t respond to a list of questions AP sent to their official spokesperson’s email.

When the fighting moves on, landmines don’t. Mines left behind can indiscriminately maim or kill those who happen upon them, years later.

It raises the specter of casualties for years to come. In countries including Egypt and Cambodia, people continue to die from millions of mines left behind long after conflicts have ended.

A persistent issue

“LEAVING an activated mine like this is the same as releasing a monster,” said a 26-year-old military defector who worked as a combat engineer platoon commander in Myanmar.

Like most who were interviewed by AP, the defector spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself and his family from military retaliation.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance have been a persistent issue in Myanmar for more than four decades. The problem has grown exponentially since the military takeover, with heavier use of landmines in more parts of the country, said Kim Warren, a UN landmine specialist.

In 2022, 390 people were victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Myanmar, more than a 37 percent increase from 2021, according to figures compiled by UNICEF. Overall, 102 people were killed and 288 were wounded, with children making up some 34 percent of the victims, compared with 26 percent in 2021.

Still, Warren said, incidents are underreported.

Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Landmine Monitor’s Myanmar expert, said his group counts only casualties it can confirm with confidence: “We’ve always been undercounting.”

Experts concede the total number of casualties may seem small, with Myanmar’s population of about 56 million, but say the rapid increase is distressing nonetheless. Experts are particularly concerned about children victims. Many are unaware of how lethal landmines and unexploded munitions are; some pick them up and play with them.

Many civilian victims encounter landmines during daily routines.

In March 2021, two teenage cousins were working on a

Many victims and families won’t know who was responsible for the blasts—the Tatmadaw or anti-military groups.

A member of a militia that operates in Sagaing said his group has removed nearly 100 mines thought to be planted by the military and plans to reuse them to augment its arsenal of homemade devices.

“A mine is an indispensable weapon to attack the enemy,” said the member, who spoke by phone on condition of anonymity over the sensitive information and fear the military would retaliate against his family.

One man in Myanmar’s western Chin state described how soldiers took him, his pregnant wife and their 5-year-old daughter captive, making them and 10 other civilians walk ahead, beating them with rifles if they refused.

“I thought: ‘Today is the day I die,’” said the man, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. They escaped— no mines detonated during their march.

Landmine Monitor documented similar incidents in other states, calling it a “grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

Myanmar and Russia were the only states documented to have used mines in 2022, according to Landmine Monitor.

The group also confirmed the military has been increasingly mining infrastructure such as mobile phone towers and power lines to deter attacks. Military-planted mines also are protecting at least two major Chinese-backed projects—a copper mine in Sagaing and a pipeline pumping station in northeastern Shan state that is part of China’s Belt and Road initiative,