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Infodemic Management News Flash
Thursday 18 November 2021 | Issue #26
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During the evolution of any major outbreak, cases and deaths will inevitably increase. An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time. Similarly, as already noted, there may well be another kind of epidemic – the rapid amplification and spread of information of all kinds, including rumours, concerns, questions, gossip and information of varying quality. We describe this phenomenon as an “infodemic”.
The above submission from the recent lifeology scicomm challenge depicts the information overwhelm that can occur with an infodemic perfectly. Information overload isn’t new, but the overabundance of information during the pandemic has been a challenge for health professionals, as well as community. We know that this can lead to people being desensitised to information, meaning they may be out of the loop when the emergency changes.
We have learnt a lot about managing the infodemic over the past 22 months, including how we can build strategies into preparedness for future outbreaks. WHO foresight exercise has been looking at ‘Imagining the Future’, across several global trends, including the infodemic. Register for the final session ‘Recommendations for future’ on the 10 December 2021 here.
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New funding announced for health misinformation and disinformation projects
This week the Social Science Research Council announced the creation of The Mercury Project, a three-year, $US10 million investment to combat the growing threat of misinformation and disinformation on public health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project received seed funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
The initiative will fund projects based in the United States, Africa, Asia, and Latin America for up to three years. Applications are open now for projects examining the causes and costs of health misinformation and disinformation in the following areas:
- Interventions that remove obstacles people face to accessing reliable health information
- Solutions that create equity in access to health information
- Effective approaches to increasing COVID-19 vaccination efforts that will also inform future vaccine uptake efforts
Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. Read more here
WHO strategy for engaging religious leaders
Working with trusted leaders during the pandemic has been vital in engaging with communities and communicating accurate information. The EPI-WIN team at WHO has been working closely with global religious leaders and faith-based organizations to achieve joint health goals, mitigate the negative effects of health emergencies and ultimately help to bring them to an end.
The team have now released a new strategy, outlining approaches for preparedness, as well as emergency response. The strategy outlines potential actions over six areas of focus, with ‘Communicating effectively and responding to the ‘infodemic’’ being one of the six. Some of the actions for preparedness include building capacity, skills, and collaborations. Building trust and partnerships, with communities and organizations, is not an outcome, but a practice. This needs to happen as part of preparedness so that we can be better prepared to work with communities to manage infodemic in the next emergency.
The WHO and Religions for Peace global conference on strengthening national responses to health emergencies is in progress. You can read more, catch up on previous sessions and register for upcoming sessions here.
A community toolkit for addressing health misinformation
The United States Surgeon General’s office have recently released a new Community toolkit for addressing health misinformation. The guidance provides resources for health care providers, educators, librarians, faith leaders, and trusted community members to understand, identify, and stop the spread of health misinformation in their communities.
This new toolkit uses imagery, comic strips and activities to communicate the information in a easy-to-use format. The misinformation checklists and accompanying infographics have easy to follow steps everyone can use to check information, and tackle misinformation. Everyone can be an infodemic manager in their daily life and these documents help to empower people with strategies and resources to do so.
Access the toolkit and further information here.
Opportunities for action
Science squad Africa | COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy challenge for young Africans
Science squad Africa are hosting a challenge for young Africans aged between 11-19 years. Participants are urged to record a brief video addressing the topic, ‘What can be done to discourage COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Africa? Send any budding infodemic managers to the @Sciencesquadafrica socials to get more information. Be quick, entries close 30 November 2021.
Read more here
Call for proposals | GISWatch 2021-2022 report
There is a call for proposals for the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) 2021-2022 Report. The theme is ‘COVID-19: Changes to digital rights, priorities and strategies’. The edition aims to address two main questions:
- How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed or shaped the ways in which civil society organizations do their advocacy work around digital technology-related issues, including digital rights?
- How have digital technology and digital rights advocacy priorities shifted due to the pandemic?
Proposals are due by 22 November, read more here
Call for expressions of interest | SSRC fellowships
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) seeks applicants for a range of fellowships, including for the inaugural cohort of its Just Tech Fellowship. Just Tech fellows will receive two-year awards of $100,000 per year and other benefits. Fellows will identify and challenge injustices emerging from new technologies, and identify solutions that advance social, political, and economic rights. There is a public information session on 1 December 2021, and then expressions of interest are due 2 January 2022.
Read more about all the available fellowships here.
Call for applicants | WHO Young professionals programme
WHO Headquarters offers opportunities for young professionals from Least Developed Countries to engage in WHO’s work and build skills and competence in key public health areas. Young Professionals will be assigned to regular WHO positions and will be fully immersed in WHO’s technical work. They will receive support and mentorship. A range of opportunities are available.
Read more here.
Call for papers | Design research society
The 2022 Design Research Society (DRS) conference will be held in Bilbao, Spain. Papers are now open for research papers in an open call, or a theme-track. Infodemic management crosses several of the themes, including theme 6 ‘Meta-Design in the complexity of global challenges’. Papers are sought that discuss the reflective practice of re-designing design, the design of design systems and the (co)design of a shared purpose. Papers are due 24 November 2021.
Read more about the conference here
Call for participants | True costs of misinformation workshop
The Shorenstein Centre on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School are seeking ‘presenters’ and ‘respondent’s’ for an upcoming workshop examining the financial, social, and human costs of misinformation. The workshop will aim to facilitate debate about disinformation studies, methodology and the politics and ethics of measurement and funding.
The two day event will be held 9 – 10 March 2022, and the application deadline is 15 December 2021.
Read more here
Job opportunities
- UNICEF: Communication for Development Specialist - Immunization (United States)
- ONE: Social Media Community Engagement Coordinator (Washington, United States)
- Atlantic Council: Associate Director, Training and Capacity Building (Washington, United States)
- UNICEF: Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist - Social and Behaviour Change (United States)
- Lie Detectors: Communications trainee (Brussels, Belgium)
- Lie Detectors: International Programme Director (Brussels, Belgium)
- Syracuse University: Associate or Full Professor, Broadcast and Digital Journalism (New York, United States)
- Syracuse University: Assistant Professor, Broadcast and Digital Journalism (New York, United States)
- Syracuse University: Assistant Professor, Visual Communications (New York, United States)
- UNICEF: International Consultant, Communication, Multimedia (Jakata, Indonesia)
- UNICEF: National Media Consultant (Kyiv, Ukraine)
- UNICEF: Social and Digital Media Consultant (Pretoria, South Africa)
- USAID RDMA: Open Call for Digital Development Consultants and Experts (Bangkok, Thailand)
- UNICEF: Associate Director Social and Behavior Change (United States)
Upcoming events
First international conference on public health in Africa | 14-16 December 2021
The countdown is on until the inaugural conference on public health in Africa (CPHIA 2021). Hosted by the Africa CDC and African Union, the conference is fully online and free to attend. The conference will create a unique platform where African researchers, policymakers and stakeholders can share perspectives and research findings in public health, while ushering in a new era of strengthened scientific collaboration and innovation across the continent.
Read more and register here
Fostering population health research in a (post) pandemic Europe | 30 November 2021
The Population Health Information Research Infrastructure (PHIRI), is implementing a research infrastructure to facilitate and generate the best available evidence for research on health and well-being of populations as impacted by COVID-19. An upcoming celebratory, one year event will showcase key outcomes of the project and put these outputs into perspective in order to fuel and promote an active discussion. Further information on the session will be available soon.
Register here
UFCSPA Congress | 29 November – 3 December 2021
The UFCSPA Congress is a free online event that promotes dialogue between science and society. The theme for this year places global health at the core. The congress runs from 29 November to 3 December 2021 and is fully online. The WHO infodemic management team will be speaking on the infodemic on 1 December 2021.
Global digital health forum | 6-8 December 2021
The theme for this years Global digital health forum is ‘Improving health through digital transformation’. Digital transformation applies technology, data, processes, and organizational change to evolve existing practices or create new ones. The forum will aim to connect implementers, government stakeholders, digital health technologists, researchers, donors, implementers, and field experts from across the globe.
Read more and register here
Recent events
European public health conference 2021
The 14th European Public Health Conference 2021 was held online on the 10-12 November 2021. The theme for 2021 was ‘Public health futures in a changing world'. The WHO infodemic management team and colleagues presented a number of papers including:·
- Communications and public health
- Listening to community concerns in the COVID-19 infodemic: A WHO digital approach
- WHO public health research agenda for managing infodemics
- The relevance of WHO support to member states in measuring and understanding behaviour insights during COVID-19 syndemic
- Advances in real-time social listening for an adaptive public health response: WHO’s EARS platform
Read more about the conference here
EU DisinfoLab 2021
The EU DisinfoLab is an independent non-profit organization focused on tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the European Union, its member states, core institutions, and core values. The annual conference was held in Brussels on 26-27 October 2021. The sessions were not recorded but slide decks from some of the presentations and reports are now available online, as well as photos and some coverage of the event.
Access the materials here
World evidence-based healthcare day: The role of evidence in an infodemic
World evidence based healthcare day was held on 20 October 2021. The theme was 'The role of evidence in an infodemic' and presentations and events explored this role, and how to promote access to trustworthy, evidence-informed health information. Recordings, information and resources are now available directly from the website.
Access the resources here
What we're reading
Fun with numbers
The WHO Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness team recently published an overview of work done on managing the COVID-19 infodemic since early 2020 into the first quarter of 2021.
Since March 2020, the team have distributed weekly social listening reports (we’re up to number 83), 25 news flashes and over 100 COVID-19-related technical webinars to more than 60,000 participants from 49 countries and territories. The new EARS social listening platform now provides data for 30 countries in 9 languages. Over 60 COVID-19 updates have been written and disseminated, as well as 55 infographics and videos, and lots, lots more.
We thank all of our partners for the great work we have been able to do together in a short period of time, and look forward to continuing our collaborations. Read the full overview here.
About the News Flash
An infodemic is an overabundance of information—some accurate, some not—that spreads alongside a disease outbreak. Infodemics are nothing new, but in the digital age, they spread in real time and create a breeding ground for uncertainty. Uncertainty fuels skepticism and distrust, which is a perfect environment for fear, anxiety, finger-pointing, stigma, violent aggression and dismissal of proven public health measures. To manage an infodemic, we need to understand what contributes to it. So that’s why we’re sending you these updates. In each issue of the WHO’s Infodemic Management News Flash we’ll share the latest work happening at the global level, as well as highlight some of the challenges and solutions with infodemics in local contexts. We’ll also provide you with a few takeaways to help you be an effective infodemic manager in your daily life.
If you have a tip on infodemic management or an idea for a future News Flash, email us at infodemicmanagement@who.int. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
