

How False Rumors can Cost Lives - eduardoflores
http://canonical.org/~kragen/costs-lives.html

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ZeroGravitas
Interesting stuff to think about.

Just like in zombie movies, it's your fellow human beings you've got to watch
out for in such situations, a flu pandemic is just a backdrop to watch the
human drama unfold against.

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swolchok
"If you don’t know anything about the science, ask someone who does, or check
in Wikipedia. (It’s not infallible, but it’s a lot better than the New York
Times."

This, in an article about the spread of false rumors.

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duskwuff
I fail to see any contradiction here. The core of the issue lies in taking the
word of people who _don't_ know anything about the science. And, where science
is concerned, Wikipedia tends to do very well: any non-stub science article
will likely have copious references.

~~~
swolchok
I was under the impression that Wikipedia has this vandalism problem,
especially with popular articles.

~~~
duskwuff
Vandalism tends to get caught very quickly as it shows up on the Recent
Changes feed, and doubly so on popular articles (which many users will also
have watchlisted).

