About this episode:

Once a useful tool for sharing critical information during the pandemic, social media has evolved into an oversaturated and underregulated marketplace for health disinformation. In this episode: Infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator Jessica Malaty Rivera analyzes the online landscape and advises listeners on how to approach alarmist and misleading health content.

Guest:

Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS, is a DrPH student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a researcher at the Center of Health Security.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

CDC Urges 'Shared Decision-Making' on Some Childhood Vaccines; Many Unclear About What That Means—Annenberg Public Policy Center
Facts About VISs—CDC
How Americans' changing views on health paved the way for RFK Jr.—ABC News
How Public Health Found Its Voice—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine
"Information Sick"—Public Health On Call (December 2025)

Transcript information:

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Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.