The WHO Trains Professionals to Face the Infodemic

The WHO is fighting the growing global infodemic by training a community of professionals to counteract the misinformation regarding COVID-19, monkeypox and other outbreaks. WHO has trained 1,328 infodemic managers in 142 countries, including Mexico. 

“All epidemics and pandemics are accompanied by an infodemic, which require new skill sets applied to public health to understand and address the overwhelming amount of information, including mis- and disinformation,” said the WHO. 

As of today, the organization has led three global infodemic manager training programs, multiple country-level training programs and comprehensive training to support COVID-19 vaccination. The programs include lectures, simulation exercises and practical tools. The knowledge acquired is applied by each manager to the needs of their respective countries. Graduates from this program are contributing to introducing new curriculum on infodemic management into academic institutions to train professionals to face the overabundance of misleading and false health information. 

Simultaneously, the WHO promotes four activities to ensure good health practices within infodemic management which are: listening to community concerns and questions, promoting understanding of risk and health expert advice, building resilience to misinformation and engaging and empowering communities to take positive action.

Today, the organization released a public health taxonomy to support infodemic monitoring regarding monkeypox. A similar approach was previously used during the COVID-19 pandemic. This strategy aims to enable countries to address questions and identify misinformation regarding the outbreak.

“Despite best efforts by health authorities to get information to communities quickly in an acute public health event, the breadth of the exchanges, the diversity of sources and the polarity of opinions in today’s rapidly evolving information environment have sometimes resulted in indiscriminate amplification of both verified and unverified information,” reports the organization. 

The transformation of social media into an important medium of communication has contributed to the increasing risks that result from an infodemic. The COVID-19 pandemic made visible the need to have fast science-based information, as people started to believe and rely on false information shared through social media. “An infodemic causes confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can harm health. It also leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines the public health response,” says WHO. In early 2020, about 6,000 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 misinformation, as reported by the organization.

To tackle the infodemic, experts agree that scientific based health information and education have to be offered to society. Additionally, they suggest that health professionals have to adapt to the new channels of communication and leverage the benefits that technology offers.