US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has raised the alarm over a growing wave of misinformation about Covid-19 and related vaccines that threatens efforts to quell the pandemic and save lives, urging technology companies and others to act, Reuters reports.

In his first advisory as the nation's top doctor under President Joe Biden, Murthy called on tech companies to tweak their algorithms to further demote false information and share more data with researchers and the government to help teachers, healthcare workers and the media fight misinformation.

“Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative,” he said in the advisory.

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