On the Irish Pharmacy Podcast from Vital Pharmacies, Sheena interviews scientist and author David Robert Grimes about how misinformation thrives in a social-media clickbait era by triggering fear and disgust, undermining rational thinking through negativity bias. He distinguishes misinformation (unintentional falsehoods), disinformation (deliberate lies), and malinformation (true facts stripped of context), illustrating malinformation with the “dihydrogen monoxide” water hoax and vaccine risk framing. Grimes argues community pharmacists are vital because trusted, relationship-based discussions work better than debates for helping worried patients. They discuss influencer-driven wellness marketing, conflicts of interest, black-market GLP-1s, and his critiques of red-light face masks and oral collagen studies as methodologically poor and often tied to sellers. He also outlines Russia’s history of exploiting disinformation and highlights Finland’s media literacy education as a model, urging people to pause, verify sources, and avoid outsourcing thinking to social media or AI.
00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:16 Meet David Robert Grimes
00:51 Skeptical Inquiry Fellow
01:52 Why Misinformation Spreads
03:24 Anti Vaccine History
05:12 Misinfo Disinfo Malinfo
06:40 Water Hoax Explained
10:22 Pharmacists Build Trust
14:34 Wellness Industry Myths
15:35 Black Market GLP 1s
16:59 Red Light Masks Hype
18:19 Debunking Red Light Masks
22:25 Influencers and Acceptability
23:46 Parasocial Trust and Targeted Ads
25:26 Ethics of Paid Promotions
28:30 Regulating Medical Influencers
30:00 Collagen Hype Debunked
33:21 Supplements and Real Evidence
35:02 Pseudo Profound Wellness Talk
37:26 Disinformation and Russia Examples
41:22 Media Literacy Finland Model
43:34 Slow Down Verify and AI Limits
45:45 Pharmacists as First Stop
46:41 Wrap Up
This episode was brought to you by Vital Pharmacies Ireland