My source: Al Jazeera English
https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/2115677509278744808?
See also: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rldJ72bGWds
A London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine report
Published: 28 September 2026
Authors: Pete Wilton & Dr Ben Kasstan-Dabush
Foreword
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has a long track-record of developing innovative approaches to countering false or misleading health information (health misinformation). While health misinformation has always been with us, in the last few years changes to the technological and political landscape have enabled it to spread further and faster around the world, threatening to undermine trust in health experts and institutions.
That was why in January 2025 LSHTM launched a new initiative focusing on fighting dangerous health misinformation in the UK through interventions in the media, online, and on social media. While misinformation is global the response often has to be national or even local and what we quickly realised is that there is still a lot we don’t know about the prevalence and impact of health misinformation in the UK.
How equipped are Britons to identify false or misleading health claims? What do they do to factcheck if these claims are true? Are our fears about the harms of health misinformation on the UK population justified? And, if they are, who is being harmed and how can we help them to protect themselves? These were just some of the questions we had.
Of course one survey was never going to give us all the answers, but we believe the findings detailed in this report are an important first step towards gathering some of the ‘missing evidence’ on health misinformation in the UK. We hope that this report will help to motivate and inform all those working to make ours a healthier, stronger society.
Professor Liam Smeeth
Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Continued . . .
My source: BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour - 36mins
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032qn8
'How can medical misinformation harm women, and how do we combat dangerous myths? Nuala McGovern is joined by former consultant breast surgeon and cancer survivor Liz O'Riordan and Dr Rachael Kent, whose academic research focuses on the impact of digital technology on mental and physical health.'
April 2021:
'After my due date passed, I was admitted to hospital to be induced. Labour began and everything appeared normal. As first-time parents, we trusted that our baby was safe and that if something was wrong, someone would tell us. We had no reason to think otherwise.During labour, opportunities to recognise that Poppy was in distress were missed.
Monitoring that should have taken place did not happen.
By the time concerns were recognised, panic had replaced reassurance.
I was rushed to theatre frightened, confused and not fully understanding what was happening to my baby. ...'
My source: BBC Radio 4 Today 0736 mins:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032fq8
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| The Examined Illness |
AbstractThe effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence, called narrative medicine, is proposed as a model for humane and effective medical practice. Adopting methods such as close reading of literature and reflective writing allows narrative medicine to examine and illuminate 4 of medicine's central narrative situations: physician and patient, physician and self, physician and colleagues, and physicians and society. With narrative competence, physicians can reach and join their patients in illness, recognize their own personal journeys through medicine, acknowledge kinship with and duties toward other health care professionals, and inaugurate consequential discourse with the public about health care. By bridging the divides that separate physicians from patients, themselves, colleagues, and society, narrative medicine offers fresh opportunities for respectful, empathic, and nourishing medical care. ...
Charon R. Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust. JAMA. 2001;286(15):1897–1902. doi:10.1001/jama.286.15.1897
"Counsellor" | |
My source: Robert Wright, Starmer eyes succession law change for Andrew, FTWeekend, 21-22 February, 2026, p.2.
Previously: 'counselling' : 'therapy'
Generative AI is rapidly reshaping the landscape of intelligent systems. This virtual seminar covers cutting-edge research and visionary perspectives on the design, deployment, and governance of generative models. It explores how generative models are enabling adaptive control, task planning, and embodied intelligence in dynamic environments. It also addresses GenAI robustness, interpretability, and alignment which are critical pillars for deploying generative systems in high-stakes domains.The virtual seminar series is free and open to all. For further details and for the zoom link to use go to http://https://bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2026-03-11/.
The speakers will be Dr Mark Post (University of York) on 'Safety, Trust, and Perception of Generative AI: Is it deceiving us, or are we deceiving ourselves?' and Dr Erfu Yang (University of Strathclyde) on 'Generative AI in Robotics and Automation: Applications, Advancements and Challenges'.
This issue in PDF
This special theme was coordinated by our guest editors Edina Nemeth (SZTAKI) and Alexandre Termier (University of Rennes – Inria/IRISA).
No. 144 – April 2026
Special Theme: Open Science Experiences and Prospects
Call for Contributions
Five prompts drew me to BBC Radio's 'The Trip':
As a student registered mental heath nurse, we learned about the historical introduction of chlorpromazine and other drugs, the difference they made to 'care' and the side-effects.
Pharmacology is dynamic. Atypical antipsychotics are now available. But this series, as the title confirms is about psychedelics and history from 08:30.
The episode highlights the importance of how sessions are delivered. Key points, given the additional pressures (UK) upon intakes for student nurse places for learning disability and mental health, plus questions about the status of these courses within university-based nurse education. If not already aware, the episode concludes with the role of a mental health nurse who died in May. Have a listen about Kay Parley.
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| THE TRIP - BBC Radio |
It would have been marvellous to meet, speak to Nurse Parley. The episode has it's objectives of course, but there are values here. We are all test pilots, researchers.
"The American Journal of Nursing February 1964:
No role, is so welcomed on our psychiatric unit, as that of sitting with a patient during LSD therapy. This indicates that the treatment has value." ...
"Kate Parley passed away in May, so our last words will be hers. Words she would say to her patients at Weyburn, all those years ago.
'You are off on a trip with no baggage, no destination and no compass. That's why I'm here. I can't go with you, but I can be your anchor.
Wherever you go, you'll always be able to see me. I'll be the nurse who sits beside your bed. Taking notes and playing your records.
You'll never lose touch with me. Seeing me, you'll know, you are really in hospital and that you'll be back to Earth about 4 o'clock. I will send you signals too, to encourage your explorations.
I will remind you of places you longed to revisit and events you hope to scan.'"
https://www.openurses.org/_files/ugd/52de8b_870deaa149e842d286e76131b1321285.pdf
https://andrewpenn.substack.com/p/in-memoriam-kay-parley-rpn-registered
Todd, Betsy MPH, RN. Supporting the Patient on LSD Day. AJN, American Journal of Nursing 121(6):p 42-44, June 2021. | DOI: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000753656.16844.a9
A high-level précis of the Technical Paper can be found in the Summary for Policymakers report, Generative AI in Electoral Campaigns: Mapping Global Patterns.
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| IPIE |
GenAI is being deployed in many ways during elections, ranging from the creation of deepfake video and audio messages, to sophisticated voter targeting. What are the implications of GenAI for election administration and voter participation around the world? This assessment delivers the first global, data-driven analysis of its kind, designed to inform policy recommendations that enhance election administration, foster trust in electoral processes, and boost voter turnout.
Based on an analysis of an original data set of 215 incidents, covering all 50 countries holding competitive national elections in 2024, we find that:
We encourage you to check out the full report, Summary for Policymakers, and press release announcement on our website.
My source: IPIE email.
Viewing this debate and SDGs both as information spaces, and mental health/illness can provide some insights.
'Learned helplessness' is an established phenomenon in psychological studies and history.
Adam Grant in Life&Arts, FTWeekend 29-30 March 2025, p.2.
'Many people believe that in a world of echo chambers and misinformation, it's not possible to talk anyone out of their convictions. They`re wrong. Even a bot can do it.Also helpful, as per discussion to consider AI as a new / emerging 'information space' as a literal frontier, a new territory with unknowns that businesses wish to conquer and the public must learn to trust - even as users. What knowledge - understanding is needed of what is happening in the 'box'?
In recent experiments psychologists recruited thousands of Americans who believed in unfounded conspiracy theories ranging from the moon landing being faked to 9/11 being an inside job. After the participants described their views, the psychologists randomly assigned some of them to discuss these views with an AI chatbot that was prompted to refute them.
After less than 10 minutes of conversation with a ChatGPT-based LLM, more than a quarter of participants felt uncertain about their views - and those doubts persisted two months later. Short exchanges were even enough to move the opinions of strong believers.
Why? It's not just that ChatGPT has access to infinite knowledge. It turns out that AI chatbots are better listeners than the average human. The researchers found that chatbots were persuasive because they presented information that directly challenged the reasons behind people's beliefs.'
'The world is more diverse and interwoven than ever before - economically, culturally, ethnically, generationally. This is largely the result of the postwar explosion in cross-border flows of:'
INFORMATION* | GOODS |
PEOPLE | MONEY |
*Here I am treating information as analog - attached to meaning and sense-making, human reasoning - thought; information is of course also digital and an economy in itself.
'There is no ecosystem on the planet that is not enriched by increased diversity. The complexity of rainforests and oceans explains their abundance. In social systems, the cross-pollination of ideas, cultures and practices in diverse communities has been a driver of innovation and dynamism for millennia.
Yet this is a double-edged sword. A rainforest or an ocean are vulnerable to antagonistic arrivals such as humans seeking timber or fish. If cultures clash rather than cohere, diverse communities exhibit similar fragility.
Every complex system faces this balancing act, but it can be improved by strengthening ties and trust - what Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam calls social capital. The depletion of social capital over the past half-century, documented by Putnam, has tilted the scales decisively towards fragility. Today's open, connected economies are nested in brittle, disconnected societies. Neither can flourish like this.
One policy response is to reverse economic course, tightening restrictions on cross-border flows of people, goods, technologies and information. While economists (like me) tell us that doing so would diminish economic dynamism, given these policies address the insecurities felt by many at source, it is no surprise they are gaining support - especially on immigration and trade.'
My - sense of security My - trust ( FORETHOUGHT | ... Rainforest : Ocean Wetlands : Kelp forests ...^ Maps of Social Capital1 Spatial planning |
Social capital Social mobility Sociable housing2 Social cohesion Social - | Policy Curricula Governance, Citizen Trust Nat. Strategy for social connection3 Capitalism |
'An Office of the President or Prime Minister, charged with lacing social cohesion through policy, should be hard-wired into the machinery of governments.'
duty of care | duty of care |
duty of care | 'fiduciary duty' |
Fritjof Capra, Pier Luigi Luisi (2014) The Systems View of Life - A Unifying Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (I will add the page number soon.)
https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/life-sciences/genomics-bioinformatics-and-systems-biology/systems-view-life-unifying-vision?format=HB&isbn=9781107011366
Previously on W2tQ - 'duty'
ARE YOU WORKING IN THE NHS? IF SO, HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Please read this email.
Glasgow Caledonian University is inviting NHS Staff across the UK to participate in this doctoral research survey to analyse the impact of responsible leadership on improving well-being and organisational trust among NHS Staff members.
To be eligible, you must be an NHS staff member from any area of the UK in any job role. The survey collects no recognisable information and is wholly anonymised to protect participant privacy and confidentiality. It has received full ethical approval, will take around 10 minutes and will help provide an improved understanding of the area of well-being in the profession.
Please forward this survey link to everyone in your contacts working for NHS. This will help gain more responses, increasing the study's reach and validity. Your help is highly appreciated, and we thank you in advance.
Here's the link for the participant information sheet and survey:
Warm wishes
Umm E Habiba Tariq (Chief Investigator)
Umm E Habiba Tariq (she/her) | PhD Candidate, MSc, BBA (Hons)
Occasional Lecturer | Department of HRM | Glasgow School for Business and Society (GSBS)
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| Brian E. Hodges - c/o Brian's family. |
Born in Liverpool, NW England, UK.
Community Mental Health Nurse NHS, Part-time Lecturer,
Researcher Nursing & Technology Enhanced Learning
Registered Nurse - Mental Health & General
Community Psychiatric Nursing (Cert.) MMU
PG Cert. Ed.
BA(Joint Hons.) Computing and Philosophy - BIHE - Bolton
PG(Dip.) Collaboration on Psychosocial Education [COPE] Univ. Man.
MRES. e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster Univ.
Live and work in NW England - seeking a global perspective.
The views expressed on W2tQ are entirely my own, unless stated otherwise.
Comments are disabled.
If you would like to get in touch please e-mail me at
h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk
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