Infodemic Management

The stakes are higher in a digitized world, where misinformation and mixed messages overwhelm individuals and communities. This is not just a communication problem, but it requires a full rethinking of evidence-based approaches to infodemic management, putting people and communities at the centre.

How would we know if we have successfully mitigated/slowed down an infodemic? When communities and individuals are empowered to be resilient against misinformation, and have the skills and self-efficacy to recognize low-quality information and enact healthy behaviours. We will be successful when behaviours at all levels - individual, community, society, health system, government, and so on - have shifted to resist misinformation and act on and propagate accurate health guidance to flatten the epidemic curve.

The global fight against the COVID-19 infodemic should be treated as a scientific discipline on par with understanding the spread of the disease itself, since behavior change is critical to every pandemic response. During an epidemic, health authorities lean on the science of epidemiology to inform management and response activities: monitoring and outbreak response and implementing epidemic management interventions. Health authorities urgently need evidence-based infodemic management tools and interventions, informed by cross-disciplinary infodemiology research.

In early April 202, WHO has convened a public consultation to crowdsource ideas for an infodemic management framework, with a whole-of-society perspective. Everyone has a role to play in infodemic response, and from the response, it became clear that establishing the foundations of the science of infodemic management was a priority for all regions of the world.

In June 2020, WHO is convening the 1st WHO Infodemiology Conference, to discuss formation of a trans-disciplinary science that will underpin infodemic management and inform evidence-based infodemic management interventions.