一天后，卫生局局长警告美国人他所谓的“紧急威胁”健康误传，“总统乔·拜登当被问及他给平台的信息时，他毫不讳言脸谱网关于新冠肺炎的错误信息。
“他们在杀人，”他说。
周五下午，当总统离开白宫前往戴维营时，他被特别问到，“关于COVID的错误信息，你对像脸书这样的平台有什么信息?”
拜登回答说:“他们在杀人。我的意思是，这真的-看，我们唯一的大流行是在未接种疫苗的人群中。他们在杀人。”
乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社
乔·拜登总统在前往戴维营进行周末访问时接受了媒体采访...
这是拜登在登上“海军一号”前往该镇度周末之前提出的唯一问题，此前拜登政府其他官员发表评论，警告在打击新冠肺炎时错误信息的危险。
周四，医务总监·维韦克·穆尔西发布了第一份公共卫生咨询拜登政府应对错误信息和虚假信息的流行及其对公共健康的有害影响。拜登政府现在呼吁社交媒体公司采取进一步行动，打击围绕新冠肺炎疫苗的错误信息。
在拜登离开之前，美国广播公司新闻部国会记者雷切尔·斯科特周五就脸书是否在打击这一问题上做得足够多向白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基施压。
“显然不是，”普萨基说，“因为我们正在讨论应该采取的额外步骤。”
苏珊·沃尔什/美联社
2009年，白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基在白宫的每日简报会上发表讲话...
“我们正在处理一个生死攸关的问题。因此，每个人都有责任确保有准确的信息，”她补充道。“很明显，还有更多可以采取的措施。”
脸书不同意总统的描述，在一份声明中说他的说法是不真实的。
“我们不会被没有事实依据的指控分散注意力，”脸书发言人达尼·杠杆在对美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。“事实是，超过20亿人浏览了关于新冠肺炎和脸书疫苗的权威信息，这比互联网上任何其他地方都多。超过330万美国人也使用了我们的疫苗查找工具来查找在哪里以及如何获得疫苗。事实表明，脸书正在帮助拯救生命。句号。”
提升错误信息的决定是因为一些共和党人利用了政府的冠状病毒作为政治楔子的反应和疫苗信息。
与此同时，政府目前正努力提高停滞的疫苗接种率，而达美变异病毒控制了该国未接种疫苗的人群，美国疾病控制和预防中心主任罗谢尔·瓦伦斯基博士周五称之为“未接种疫苗的大流行”。
拜登政府加倍努力让更多的人接种疫苗，尤其是在该国之后没有达到总统的目标在7月4日之前让70%的成年人服用至少一剂。
雪松阿塔纳西奥/美联社
2021年7月13日，医务总监·维韦克·穆尔西在南卡罗来纳州举行的医护人员颁奖典礼上讲话...
这位卫生局长的新建议特别挖掘了社交媒体平台，认为它们极大地促进了错误信息传播的“前所未有的速度和规模”，并呼吁科技和社交媒体公司“承担更多责任，阻止健康错误信息的在线传播。”
它认为，错误信息，特别是在脸书等社交媒体网站上的错误信息，阻碍了疫苗接种工作，播下了不信任的种子，导致人们拒绝公共卫生措施，使用未经证实的治疗方法，延长了大流行，并危及生命。
“简而言之，健康错误信息已经让我们付出了生命的代价，”穆尔西周四在白宫表示。
President Biden says Facebook, other social media 'killing people' when it comes to COVID-19 misinformation
One day after the surgeon general warned Americans about what he called the "urgent threat ofhealthmisinformation," PresidentJoe Bidendidn't mince words when asked for his message to platforms likeFacebookabout COVID-19 misinformation.
"They're killing people," he said.
As the president was leaving the White House for Camp David on Friday afternoon, he was asked, specifically, "On COVID misinformation, what's your message to platforms like Facebook?"
Biden answered, "They're killing people. I mean, it really -- look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people."
It was the only question Biden took before boarding Marine One to leave town for the weekend and follows comments by other Biden administration officials warning of the dangers of misinformation in combatting COVID-19.
On Thursday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthyissued the first public health advisoryof the Biden administration to addresses an epidemic of misinformation and disinformation and its harmful impact on public health. The Biden administration is now calling on social media companies to take further action to combat misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ahead of Biden's departure, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed Friday by ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott over whether Facebook was doing enough to combat the issue.
"Clearly not," Psaki said, "because we're talking about additional steps that should be taken."
"We're dealing with a life-or-death issue here. And so, everybody has a role to play in making sure there's accurate information," she added. "It's clear there are more that can be taken."
Facebook took issue with the description by the president, saying in a statement that his claim was not true.
"We will not be distracted by accusations which aren't supported by the facts," Facebook spokesperson Dani Lever said in a statement to ABC News. "The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period."
The decision to elevate misinformation comes as some Republicans have used the government'scoronavirusresponse and vaccine messaging as a political wedge.
It also comes amid the government's current push to boost stalling vaccination rates while the delta variant takes hold of the country's unvaccinated, in what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky called "a pandemic of the unvaccinated" on Friday.
The Biden administration has doubled down on their efforts to get more people vaccinated -- particularly after the countrymissed the president's goalof getting 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4.
The surgeon general's new advisory specifically digs into social media platforms as having greatly contributed to the "unprecedented speed and scale" of misinformation's spread and Murthy calls on technology and social media companies to "take more responsibility to stop online spread of health misinformation."
It argues that misinformation, particularly on social media websites like Facebook, has hindered vaccination efforts, sown mistrust, caused people to reject public health measures, use unproven treatments, prolonged the pandemic and put lives at risk.
"Simply put, health misinformation has cost us lives," Murthy said from the White House Thursday.
