Addressing the COVID-19 INFODEMIC

By Michael A. Gisondi, MD

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, recently described health misinformation and disinformation as a public health crisis. His comments were made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the staggering number of unvaccinated Americans to date. Vaccine hesitancy is fueled in large part by online misinformation and disinformation about vaccine safety and side effects, most notably on social media platforms. Misinformation greatly affects vaccination rates across the country, but especially among certain populations and states. Social media companies actively seek to remove clearly false or misleading information about COVID-19 from their platforms, and they pair warnings with sound science and public health messaging. However, this reliable health information about the COVID-19 vaccine is drowned out by the overwhelming and growing amount of misinformation online, leading to an infodemic.

An “infodemic” is defined by the World Health Organization as “too much information, including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak. It causes confusion and risktaking behaviors that can harm health.”

The deluge of information during an infodemic leads to widespread mistrust of health authorities, undermining

public health efforts and fueling outbreaks. The COVID-19

Infodemic started early in the pandemic and has evolved to include widespread misinformation about transmission and disinformation about the vaccine. This has led to significant challenges for physicians trying to educate patients about vaccine safety and slower than expected vaccination rates. Specific, targeted messaging by public health officials and deliberate actions by social media platforms are required to combat this infodemic.

On August 26, 2021, the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University partnered with the Stanford Ethics, Society, and Technology Hub to sponsor “INFODEMIC: A Stanford Conference on Social Media and COVID-19 Misinformation.” INFODEMIC virtually convened experts from around the world and a broad cross section of disciplines, including social media, cyber policy, ethics, public health, and

medicine. The conference goal was to identify new best practices for social media companies to combat COVID-19 misinformation on their platforms. Over 500 participants from 71 countries listened to speakers from

Pfizer, the World Health Organization, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Hastings Center (among others) discuss vaccine hesitancy, confidence, equity, and ethics. Representatives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter and online physician influencers discussed current efforts to communicate accurate COVID-19 vaccine information online. Invited participants also included politicians and religious leaders who discussed the types of messaging needed to best communicate health information to their unique constituencies.

INFODEMIC featured 10 presentations/ panel discussions that are now freely accessible to the public. Video recordings of each session are available on the Stanford Emergency Medicine YouTube channel and audio recordings are available as podcast episodes through the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine podcast. These individual recordings and the full conference recording are also available on the INFODEMIC website.

The Journal of Medical Internet Research is sponsoring a special theme issue in conjunction with INFODEMIC, with a call for papers on “Social Media, Ethics, and COVID-19 Misinformation.” The guest editors for the issue are all emergency physicians: Drs. Mike Gisondi, Matt Strehlow, Ali Raja, Mike Gottlieb, Lauren Westafer, and Jeremy Faust. Researchers are encouraged to submit their manuscripts ahead of the December 31 deadline.

“Vaccine hesitancy is fueled in large part by online misinformation and disinformation about vaccine safety and side effects, most notably on social media platforms.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Gisondi is the inaugural vice chair of education in the department of emergency medicine at Stanford University. He is the principal and founder of The Precision Education and Assessment Research Lab (The PEARL), codirector of the Scholarly Concentration in Medical Education at Stanford School of Medicine, and the recipient of the 2021 Hal Jayne Excellence in Education Award from SAEM