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How dangerous is the spread of online misinformation?

BDJ In Practice volume 32, pages 10–15 (2019)Cite this article

On Thursday 29 August 2019, the World Health Organisation confirmed that the UK lost its status as a measles-free country, along with Albania, Greece and the Czech Republic. The news came three years after the virus was eliminated from the UK, following 231 confirmed cases of the infection in the first quarter of 2019. It doesn't matter whether you're a parent, teenager, teacher, dentist or a civil servant, you have to ask yourself how a developed country like the United Kingdom could regress and develop such attitudes over a relatively short space of time. Yet for dental professionals, this particular problem has two definitive strands.

For years, dentists and those in the upper echelons of public health have argued that water supplies should be fluoridated. It is one of the few proven, cost-effective ways to reduce caries amongst the population, and would be particularly effective in traditionally hard-to-reach segments of the population.

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References

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  1. BDJ In Practice, 64 Wimpole Street, W1G 8YS, London, UK

    David Westgarth

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  1. David Westgarth
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Correspondence to David Westgarth.

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Westgarth, D. How dangerous is the spread of online misinformation?. BDJ In Pract 32, 10–15 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41404-019-0192-3

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