Lesson on Misinformation in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a massive infodemic, that was exacerbated by the global scale of the emergency. The word infodemic derives from information and epidemic, the term was first used to refer to an abundance of information on a certain topic, displayed in a very short period of time and regardless of the information’s quality. During the last 2 years, scientific journals were under tremendous pressure to publish information on COVID-19 as quickly as possible, releasing articles that had not been peer-reviewed, which led to an overabundance of information that was propagated rapidly and ultimately retracted after further investigation. The consequences of this infodemic are unprecedented, they went from mistrusting treatments and intervention measures to consuming toxic substances that led to severe intoxication. Misinformation caused individuals to manifest panic attacks and other psychiatric illnesses, or even generated political crises encouraged by public discord promoted by fake news. The following work reviews the impact of misinformation so far through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unravelling the Web: The Internet’s Double-Edged Impact on COVID-19 Dynamics

“…This makes the COVID-19 pandemic a unique moment in the history of mankind, since for the very first time authorities had to fight not only the spread of a virus but also the uncontrolled spread of news and the consequent misinformation that perhaps caused more damage than COVID-19 itself (Ferrante et al 2023;Lisboa et al 2023;Soto-Vega et al 2024). Some authors talk in this regard about an "infodemic", which, according to the World Health Organisation, is "too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak [which] causes confusion and risk-taking behaviours that can harm health [and which] also leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines the public health response".…”