COVID-19: Facing Infodemic of pandemic

By Dr B. J. C. Perera

MBBS(Cey), DCH(Cey), DCH(Eng), MD(Paed), MRCP(UK), FRCP(Edin), FRCP(Lon), FRCPCH(UK), FSLCPaed, FCCP, Hony FRCPCH(UK), Hony. FCGP(SL) 

Specialist Consultant Paediatrician and Honorary Senior Fellow, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Readers must be familiar with the term ‘pandemic’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines a pandemic as an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people. Pandemics spread over a wide geographic area, extending into multiple countries or continents.

However, many people may not be all that conversant with the word ‘infodemic’. It refers to an overabundance of disinformation such as many types of deception, and misinformation such as blatant fabrication, both online and offline. It includes deliberate attempts to disseminate erroneous information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas of groups or individuals.

The word infodemic was definitely used as far back as 2003, in connection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a viral respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus; SARS-CoV-1. The term infodemic has seen an intensely renewed usage in the current COVID-19 pandemic caused by another coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The United Nations and the WHO began using the term during the present pandemic, as early as 31st March 2020.

COVID-19 is the first pandemic in history in which modern communication technology and social media are being used on a massive scale to keep people safe, informed, productive and connected. At the same time, and most regrettably, the very same technology, we rely on to keep connected and informed, is enabling and amplifying an infodemic that continues to undermine the global response and jeopardizes measures to control the pandemic. An infodemic can be intensely harmful to people’s physical and mental health by increasing stigmatization, threatening precious and hard-gained health advantages and by leading to poor compliance with public health measures, thereby reducing their effectiveness and endangering the ability of nations to stop the pandemic.

Most importantly, disinformation and misinformation could cost lives. That is for sure. Without the appropriate trust as well as access to correct scientific information, both being endangered by a venomous infodemic, diagnostic tests go unused, immunization campaigns or initiatives to promote effective vaccines will not meet their targets, and the virus will continue to thrive. Furthermore, disinformation polarises public debate on topics related to COVID-19, thereby intensifying hate speech, heightening the risk of conflict, violence and human rights violations, as well as threatening long-term prospects for advancing democracy, human rights and social cohesion. 

It causes confusion and risk-taking behaviour that can jeopardize health. It also leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines the public health response. An infodemic can intensify or lengthen outbreaks when people are unsure about what they need to do to protect their health and the health of people around them. With growing digitization – an expansion of social media and internet use – information can spread more rapidly. This can help to more quickly fill information voids but can also amplify harmful messages. 

A Royal Society and British Academy joint report published in October 2020 said that COVID-19 vaccine deployment faces an infodemic with misinformation often filling the knowledge void, characterised by:-

(1) distrust of science and selective use of expert authority promulgations,

(2)

suspicions targeting pharmaceutical companies and governments,

(3)

lack of straightforward explanations,

(4)

clever and unscrupulous use of emotions,

and

(5)

the use of ‘echo chambers’, which are environments in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.

At the World Health Assembly in May 2020, the WHO Member States passed Resolution WHA73.1 on the COVID-19 response. The Resolution recognizes that managing the infodemic is a critical part of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. It calls on Member States to provide reliable COVID-19 content, take measures to counter misinformation and disinformation and leverage digital technologies across the response. The Resolution also calls on international organizations to address such misinformation and disinformation in the digital sphere, work to prevent harmful cyber activities undermining the health response and support the provision of science-based data to the public.

The United Nations (UN) System and civil society organizations are using their collective expertise and knowledge to respond to the infodemic. At the same time, as the pandemic continues to create uncertainty and anxiety, there is an urgent need for stronger action to manage the infodemic, and for a coordinated approach among states, multi-lateral organizations, civil society and all other actors who have a clear role and responsibility in combatting misinformation and disinformation. They call on Member States to develop and implement action plans to manage the infodemic by promoting the timely dissemination of accurate information, based on science and evidence, to all communities, and in particular high-risk groups, and preventing the spread of and combating, misinformation and disinformation, while respecting freedom of expression.

They also urge Member States to engage and listen to their communities as they develop their national action plans, and to empower communities to develop solutions and resilience against the infodemic.

They further call on all other stakeholders, including  the media and social media platforms through which misinformation and disinformation are disseminated, as well as researchers and technologists who can design and build effective strategies and tools to respond to the infodemic, civil society leaders and influencers, to collaborate with the UN system, with Member States and with each other, and to further strengthen their actions to disseminate accurate information and prevent the spread of  misinformation and disinformation.

Infodemic management is the systematic and scientific use of risk-based and evidence-based analysis and approaches to manage the infodemic, keep everybody informed of validated scientific information and reduce the deleterious impact of the infodemic on healthy behaviour of the public during health emergencies.

Infodemic management aims to enable good health practices through four cardinal types of activities. They are:-

*Listening to community concerns and questions

*Promoting understanding of risk and health expert advice and abiding by them

*Building steadfast resilience to disinformation and misinformation 

*Engaging and empowering communities to take positive action against the infodemic by keeping them informed with up-to-date knowledge

In very many developed countries, even though their infodemic components are of strong and most virulent character, the governments have taken cogent, persuasive and forceful steps to countermand their potentially lethal effects. One thing they have done is to provide their public with up-to-the-minute unambiguous information. There are no discrepancies of information from different sources. They have gone that extra mile to forcefully and ever so promptly deny the horrendous canards of disinformation and misinformation that are spread through various channels. In a most pithy and succinct manner, they do ‘come clean’ with verified and scientific information. Their Heads of State and topmost legislators come over regularly on electronic and print media, even weekly, not to talk of despicable drivel, but to address their subjects in the country, keep their people informed and solicit their cooperation on all aspects that are the need of the hour. Most unfortunately and ever so sadly, such initiatives on the part of the powers-that-be, are almost totally lacking in the developing nations, especially in the Asian Region.

The infodemic situation in the paradise isle is most definitely of the greatest concern. This writer wishes to remain, leaving it to the readership to be the jury and the judge, in a committed initiative to ascertain the degree to which our legislators and decision-makers have risen to the occasion and tried to fit the bill.