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We investigated main points about Alzheimer's disease in Brazilian science blogs. Main subjects were explanations about the disease, besides fighting and preventing it. More scientific communication activities on the subject are recommended.

This study analysed news stories from the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo in three time periods during the first year of the pandemic in Brazil. Through content analysis, in the context of a theoretical framework that includes elements of public communication of science, community health and critical epidemiology, we sought to identify trends and changes in the topics reported and concluded that there is a change of focus with the evolution of the pandemic and limitations are observed to address scientific issues.

Disinformation is not a recent phenomenon, but it gained strength in the 2010s and expanded its dimension with the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the fields of science and health. This context has contributed to an increase in studies related to disinformation in the context of science and health communication at a global level, but also in our region. This led us to open a call for this special issue on disinformation and communication of science and health in Latin America, which we present in this editorial.

Proposing debates about disinformation is challenging. Processes such as the Covid-19 pandemic or political-electoral scenarios reinforce the need to fight distortions and misinformation. When it comes to science and health, it becomes more relevant. Our objectives are to show the main types of misinformation and discuss their harmful consequences for the public in Brazil, the country this study focuses on. The methodological paths used are the literature review and the categorization of the types of misinformation identified in the country between 2020 and 2021. In the final considerations, we detail the widespread misinformation in the country and the growing number of mechanisms to face it.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deep global impact in several social spheres, ranging from public health, economic activities, education and even the polarization that has occurred in the public discussion of the subject. Politicians, artists and scientists alike have expressed their positions on social media, producing debates with a wide range of perspectives that are not necessarily based on sound scientific facts. Thus, the conflict between reliable information and misinformation contributes to the growing uncertainty and complexity of the pandemic. This article explores how people look for references to build an opinion regarding the pandemic and the way in which personalities of different ranks, professions and nuances spread their opinions on health issues in Mexico. As methodological tools, the team analyzed hundreds of tweets from eleven profiles, divided into three groups: celebrities, politicians, and science communicators, in 14 relevant events during the pandemic. The results led to the construction of four major sections: deniers, moderates, cautious and critical. With this work, a basis is cemented to develop containment actions against disinformation and strategies to make the impact of Covid-19 visible, given the need for Mexican society to have reliable information to assume a position towards the so-called “new normality”.

This essay addresses tensions arising from the encounter between the new forms of neoliberal capitalism in life on digital platforms and the communication market that deals with scientific misinformation. To this end, we present statistical data on misinformation about vaccines, as well as theoretical approaches concerning the platforms' negotiating possibilities. On the one hand, optimists who see in the big techs connective business models, on the other, thinkers who consider the platforms as new spaces of exploitation and human colonization, where misinformation presents itself as a strategy to attract users' attention.

Diante da pandemia do coronavírus, atualmente, as vacinas estão inseridas nas discussões do cotidiano dos cidadãos. Para além das controvérsias desse tema, há uma mobilização de desinformações que coadunam fake news e pós-verdades. Nesse contexto, busca-se com este artigo investigar como a produção do conhecimento científico reconhece as controvérsias e as fake news sobre vacinas, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica. Entre as pesquisas recentes, existem as que analisam fake news, bem como o ambiente em que circulam e, também, sua checagem, apontando, assim, novos cenários e contextos de investigações.

A democratização e o fácil acesso a informação trazem um desafio: o aumento do número e da velocidade da circulação de notícias falsas. Neste artigo, estudamos a recepção de notícias de saúde e a importância dada ao nome do veículo de publicação pelos leitores, bem como motivações para o compartilhamento de tais notícias. Realizamos um estudo exploratório utilizando uma metodologia mista, com um rastreador ocular e um questionário, com 23 participantes. Eles leram quatro textos diferentes, dois críveis e dois com características de notícias falsas. A análise de 24.098 fixações oculares e as respostas aos questionários mostram a pouca importância dada ao nome do veículo e, também, a pouca influência desta informação na decisão de compartilhar os textos. Nossos dados indicam que notícias falsas são compartilhadas por questões subjetivas ligadas sobretudo ao tema do texto, sem preocupação com sua credibilidade.

Ante la pandemia actual, y en vista de la ola de desinformación, de información incierta, incorrecta o alterada, es conveniente discutir si la comunicación de la ciencia, cuyos objetivos son en principio diferentes a los de una campaña, pudiera intervenir para contrarrestar en alguna medida esta problemática.

El programa “Conversemos, mamá” es una intervención de comunicación de la ciencia a través de un proyecto de investigación dirigido a mujeres gestantes en situacion de vulnerabilidad, en Santiago de Chile. La iniciativa busca comunicar conocimiento neurocientífico a madres que se encuentran en estados tempranos del embarazo y hasta que sus hijos alcanzan los 4 años de edad. El objetivo es comunicar conocimiento científico a las madres acerca de cómo utilizar el lenguaje y la estimulación cognitiva temprana, así como entregar estrategias para la neuroprotección de los cerebros de los infantes para, de esta manera, romper las barreras de desigualdad presentes en la sociedad chilena. Este es el primer programa de su tipo, en el cual se utiliza una metodología variada, en la que el lenguaje juega un papel protagónico en la prevención del estrés tóxico proveniente de vivir en un ambiente estresante y de vulnerabilidad, con falta de estimulación lingüística y donde muy posiblemente existe un daño psicológico, resultado de haber nacido en condiciones de extrema pobreza. En este trabajo proponemos que el uso de narrativas, en conjunto con otras experiencias lúdicas y actividades experienciales, es una forma posible de comunicar neurociencias de manera comprensible, confiable y disfrutable a públicos en condiciones de baja escolaridad y bajo ingreso económico en América Latina.