Infodemiology

Infodemiology

1st WHO Infodemiology Conference

30 June – 16 July 2020

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the phenomenon of an ‘infodemic’ has escalated to a level that requires a coordinated response. An infodemic is an overabundance of information – some accurate and some not – occurring during an epidemic. It makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Even when people have access to high-quality information, there are still barriers they must overcome to take the recommended action. Like pathogens in epidemics, misinformation spreads further and faster and adds complexity to health emergency response.

An infodemic cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed. To respond effectively to infodemics, WHO calls for adaptation, development, validation and evaluation of new evidence-based measures and practices to prevent, detect and respond to mis- and disinformation.

In the context of this meeting, “infodemiology” is defined as the science of managing infodemics. The overall aim of this consultation is to take stock of relevant research and effective practices and define public health research needs in order to advance this field. The working language of the meeting will be English.

Source: World Health Organization 1st WHO Infodemiology Conference 30 June – 16 July 2020

Background

The World Health Organisation led us to believe that from the beginning of the pandemic there has been a deluge of information which the WHO described as an infodemic.

Since much of that information has been perceived to be misinformation UNESCO has, perhaps more accurately, described it as a disinfodemic.

The next step was to define Infodemic Management which is required to curb the dangerous spread of disinformation, and a new field of expertise called Infodemiology has been developed.

However, looking back to February 2020, it is difficult to recall any deluge of information which at that time constituted an infodemic. The WHO did not declare a pandemic until 11 March 2020, and prior to then I recall only a normal amount of news.

In fact, the most damaging pieces of misinformation were the statements that there was no evidence of community transmission, and no need to stop international travel!

The 'infodemic', as I recall, really accelerated AFTER the WHO terminated treatment trials assessing low-cost readily available drugs. That provoked a reaction from doctors and other health advocates, and suspicions of one or more conspiracies gained traction.

Regardless of when or how the so-called infodemic started, the actions by WHO were likely based on previous experiences during the SARS epidemic/pandemic, and were perhaps pre-emptive or pro-active.

Identifying the Infodemic

On 15 February 2020, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "But we’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic." Here is part of that speech:-

Today, I have three requests for the international community.
First, we must use the window of opportunity we have to intensify our preparedness.
China has bought the world time. We don’t know how much time.
All countries must be prepared for the arrival of cases, to treat patients with dignity and compassion, to prevent onward transmission, and to protect health workers.
WHO is working with manufacturers and distributors of personal protective equipment to ensure a reliable supply of the tools health workers need to do their job safely and effectively.
But we’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic.
Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous.
That’s why we’re also working with search and media companies like Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Tencent, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and others to counter the spread of rumours and misinformation.
We call on all governments, companies and news organizations to work with us to sound the appropriate level of alarm, without fanning the flames of hysteria.

On 11 March 2020 WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Infodemic Management

1. The WHO website now includes a section focussed on Infodemic Management. The following definitions are quoted from that page:

   Infodemic: overabundance of information – some accurate and some not – that occurs during an epidemic. It can lead to confusion and ultimately mistrust in governments and public health response.
   

   Infodemic management: applying evidence-based interventions that bring understandable, localized evidence-based information to citizens and drive positive health-seeking behaviour.



2. A UNESCO website Combating the disinfodemic: Working for truth in the time of COVID-19 uses the new word disinfodemic to mean an infodemic of disinformation:
   
   COVID-19 has led to a parallel pandemic of disinformation that directly impacts lives and livelihoods around the world. Falsehoods and misinformation have proven deadly and sowed confusion about life-saving personal and policy choices.

Infodemiology

Since the pandemic was accompanied by a parallel pandemic of misinformation, WHO defined a new scientific discipline - Infodemiology.

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 June 2020, WHO convened 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".

Our Governments now use the same language

The following items were located by an internet search which included the key work infodemic and filtered by country, for example .uk, .ca, and .au, and there would be many more examples.

The abundance of misinformation circulating about COVID-19 and the pandemic response has led to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring a COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’.

Source: Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Fact-checking COVID-19 information

Vaccine confidence, undermined by an infodemic of misinformation about the importance, safety, or effectiveness of vaccines, poses a severe risk to the acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines – critical to our defence against the pandemic, enabling our collective recovery and reducing the risk of repeated outbreaks.

Source: Government Communication Service (UK) GCS International joins the fight against health misinformation worldwide

The World Health Organization has even coined the term ‘infodemic’ to describe this oversupply of information that confuses instead of clarifying..

Source: Australian Digital Health Agency Insights: Why is COVID-19 so confusing?

These examples illustrate the way government agencies have worked with WHO, using the same terminology. The Canadian website quotes extensively from the WHO page on Infodemic Management; the UK site includes an online game "to alert people to the dangers of misinformation around coronavirus (COVID-19) and how to combat it"; and the Australian example links to an earlier document which carries the same message - the Situation Report #13 dated 2 February 2020 - which is quoted below.

Managing the 2019-nCoV ‘infodemic’

The 2019-nCoV outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ - an over-abundance of information – some accurate and some not – that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.

Due to the high demand for timely and trustworthy information about 2019-nCoV, WHO technical risk communication and social media teams have been working closely to track and respond to myths and rumours. Through its headquarters in Geneva, its six regional offices and its partners, the Organization is working 24 hours a day to identify the most prevalent rumours that can potentially harm the public’s health, such as false prevention measures or cures. These myths are then refuted with evidence-based information. WHO is making public health information and advice on the 2019-nCoV, including myth busters, available on its social media channels (including Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest) and website.

Cross-Regional Statement on “Infodemic” in the Context of COVID-19

132 Member States have signed their commitment to 'strongly support the United Nations Communications Response initiative and the “Verified” campaign announced by the UN Secretary General on April 14, 2020'.

More detail is linked here: Censorship/Cross-regional Statement.

Summary

During the media briefing on 11 March 2020 in which the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, the WHO Director-General said that "WHO’s mandate is public health. But we’re working with many partners across all sectors to mitigate the social and economic consequences of this pandemic."

Have you noticed that the official narrative across many independent countries is reasonably consistent? Have you wondered why the major social media platforms are involved in news checking? Did you notice the word 'but' in the quote above?

We live in an Information Age where information sharing has become the norm and in schools we teach kids how to evaluate information, or at least we used to. It was all part of free speech. Of course there will be false and misleading information, conspiracy theories and plain dumb nonsense mixed up with everything that's valuable. The individual is supposed to be able to discern the truth and is allowed to develop opinions or beliefs which are either valid or eccentric. That's part of our Western way of life. Or it used to be...

Apparently the World Health Organisation has determined that the amount of information out there is not good for us, and the uncontrolled spread of information which differs from the official narrative requires coordinated management on an International scale, involving not only government health departments but private sector involvement.

The goal of infodemic management is to drive us all to adopt positive health seeking behaviour - to participate in the first global vaccination program using new technology never before tested or implemented on such a grand scale.

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References

World Health Organization

CoronaVirus Disease 2019 (caused by SARS-CoV-2)

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome