Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this global conference addressing one of the most difficult aspects of public health:
Amid a flood of rapidly evolving and sometimes conflicting information, how do we best communicate science with the public and policymakers during an outbreak or other health emergency?
The COVID-19 pandemic is a disease of the Information Age.
Never before has there been such a plethora of scientific studies on a single disease in such a short time, with over two hundred thousand articles about COVID-19 published in 2020, according to one estimate.
This deluge of constantly changing, and sometimes contradictory, findings and advice has often created more uncertainty, precisely at a time when people need clarity.
Scientific processes, decision-making in an emergency context and mass communication do not fit together easily.
High-quality research takes time, but time is something we don’t have in an emergency.
The conversation becomes even more garbled with the deluge of false and misleading information on social media, or that makes its way into political rhetoric and traditional media reporting, or that can spread in faith communities or at the dinner table.
The importance of communicating science in a trustworthy and understandable way is especially relevant in the case of vaccine confidence.
WHO carefully monitors the safety and efficacy of vaccines we have listed, provides technical guidance for countries to manage vaccine introduction, and works closely with national regulators to evaluate potential risks.
But some people do not trust the science behind the vaccine development, and fall for conspiracy theories and misinformation.
WHO works with countries and partners to thoroughly understand the reasons behind low vaccination uptake and to design tailored, community-led strategies to respond.
We support research to better understand infodemics, develop clear risk communication messages and train professionals as infodemic managers.
We continuously monitor and review the latest evidence on the virus. We convene the world’s leading experts to better understand the drivers and consequences of the pandemic.
Through partnerships with technology companies and social media platforms like WhatsApp, we’re reaching billions of people with reliable public health information in more than 75 languages;
With Facebook we’re studying the effectiveness of social media campaigns on perceptions of vaccine safety.
Together with the Government of the United Kingdom and Google, WHO is developing a cloud-based platform to provide real-time insights on COVID-19 misinformation around the world, so that it can be countered with accurate information.
Our aim is to give decision-makers, media and the public accurate information, based on science, to save lives.
Many of us have become science communicators during this pandemic, including teachers, healthcare workers and religious leaders.
And many people have come up with innovative ways to bring science into their everyday lives, including comic books, songs and videos.
But we still need to better understand how we can support researchers, policymakers, media and the public to translate science into effective, innovative and reliable communication.
With this conference, we want to learn from you. We want to hear your innovative ideas and experiences on how we can make best use of the emerging science during health emergencies.
We want to understand how we can make science accessible and relevant to all so that we can navigate this and future crises using facts and evidence, instead of falling for panic and rumors.
And we want to know how WHO can support you.
I wish you a productive discussion over the course of the conference, and I very much look forward to continuing the conversation.
I thank you.