“Friendly reminder in times of uncertainty and misinformation: anecdotes are not data. (good) data is carefully measured and collected information based on a range of subject-dependent factors, including, but not limited to, controlled variables, meta-analysis, and randomization.”
Solid advice at all times – but particularly worth listening to right now, with fake news threatening to make the current crisis worse. So which boffin is behind the nine tweet-long thread (among others)?
Well, in fact it’s US brand Steak-Umm. It makes thin frozen steaks – we’re not sure what the note of hesitancy in the brand name is about, because it seems pretty sure of itself when it comes to battling misinformation.
So sound a voice has Steak-Umm been that it has recruited a raft of vegetarian followers, and even an epidemiologist keen to trumpet its good sense to media outlets covering brands’ social media responses to the crisis. Noted!
It’s going to be weird when ‘all this is over’ and the account presumably goes back to hawking meat. But followers can’t say Steak-Umm hasn’t given them something to chew on.
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