Episode S.4: Lil Alessa — COVID-19 Disinformation

Meet Lil Alessa (bit.ly/2SLSRFH), professor and co-director of the Center for Resilient Communities at the University of Idaho. We all know fake news exists, and you’ve probably noticed fake news about COVID-19 zooming by on your social media feeds. Lil and a group of academics are spending part of their time searching out disinformation on COVID-19 as it pops up. They then try and figure out whether there could be important consequences to the spread of that information. Lil and I chatted about the significance of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit our website go.uidaho.edu/thevandaltheory​. Email us at [email protected]. Learn about Idaho’s premier research university, University of Idaho, at uidaho.edu. More U of I research: Our entrepreneurial team CatheterX has designed an innovative urinary catheter that should prevent infections, save lives and reduce hospital costs. Read more at bit.ly/2zq5zTZ. The University of Idaho is working to identify a cure for coronaviruses, including COVID-19. The Department of Biological Sciences team expects to finish preliminary tests within a year. Read more at bit.ly/3crdaQw. John Abatzoglou, from the Department of Geography, and colleagues looked at how snowmelt affects food production and how changes in snowmelt may threaten production in irrigated regions. Read more at bit.ly/36v8vuI. Music: “Young Republicans” by Steve Combs (bit.ly/2PsMCpw) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2Ju7MQb). “The Stork” by Ketsa (bit.ly/2A99Lru) via freeusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/3ceRqHG).