Perspectives

Physicians’ Role in the COVID-19 Infodemic: A Reflection

Authors: Sydney B. Blankenship, BS, Mariko Nakano-Okuno, PhD, Rocksheng Zhong, MD, MHS

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been marked by abundant conflicting information, especially in social media.1–4 Widespread Internet access enabled rapid distribution of information while also opening the door to the dissemination of fear-provoking, inaccurate data that, when superimposed upon an election year and political unrest, led to tension and distrust.5,6 As those responsible for the health and well-being of people in the community, physicians have an ethical obligation to reflect upon the nature of the COVID-19 infodemic, how it has affected people’s health, and how to handle a similar situation in the future.
Posted in: Infectious Disease136

Full Article

Having trouble viewing the article content below? Click here to open it directly.

References

1. Agley J, Xiao Y, Thompson EE, et al. COVID-19 misinformation prophylaxis: protocol for a randomized trial of a brief informational intervention. JMIR Res Protoc 2020;9:e24383
 
2. Orso D, Federici N, Copetti R, et al. Infodemic and the spread of fake news in the COVID-19-era. Eur J Emerg Med 2020;27:327–328
 
3. Siebenhaar KU, Kother AK, Alpers GW. Dealing with the COVID-19 infodemic: distress by information, information avoidance, and compliance with preventive measures. Front Psychol 2020;11:567905
 
4. Zarocostas J. How to fight an infodemic. Lancet 2020;395:676
 
5. Chopra R. Communication in the time of COVID-19: some reflections on ethics. https://www.scu.edu/ethics-spotlight/covid-19/communication-in-the-time-of-covid-19-some-reflections-on-ethics/. Published 2020. Accessed September 18, 2021
 
6. Tusinski Berg K. Media ethics, fake news, politics, and influence in public life. J Media Ethics 2017;32:179
 
7. Alwan NA, Burgess RA, Ashworth S, et al. Scientific consensus on the COVID-19 pandemic: we need to act now. Lancet 2020;396:e71–e72
 
8. Kulldorff M, Gupta S, Bhattacharya J. The Great Barrington Declaration. https:// gbdeclaration.org. Published October 4, 2020. Accessed Januray 25, 2021
 
9. Mehra MR, Desai SS, Kuy S, et al. Retraction: cardiovascular disease, drug therapy, and mortality in Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020;382:2582
 
10. Mehra MR, Desai SS, Ruschitzka F, et al. RETRACTED: hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis. Lancet DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31180-6
 
11. Tanne JH. Covid-19: CDC publishes then withdraws information on aerosol transmission. BMJ 2020;370:m3739
 
12. Scerri M, Grech V. COVID-19, its novel vaccination and fake news—what a brew. Early Hum Dev 2020:105256
 
13. Cinelli M, Quattrociocchi W, Galeazzi A, et al. The COVID-19 social media infodemic. Sci Rep 2020;10:16598
 
14. Gallotti R, Valle F, Castaldo N, et al. Assessing the risks of "infodemics" in response to COVID-19 epidemics. Nat Hum Behav 2020;4:1285–1293
 
15. Wang Y, McKee M, Torbica A, et al. Systematic literature review on the spread of health-related misinformation on social media. Soc Sci Med 2019; 240:112552
 
16. Clifford E. Twitter allows Trump COVID-19 disinfectant videos, blocks ‘#InjectDisinfectant. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirustrump-twitter-idUKKCN2262TD. Published April 24, 2020. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
17. Kelland K. Speed science: the risks of swiftly spreading coronavirus research. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-research-analysis/ speed-science-the-risks-of-swiftly-spreading-coronavirus-researchidUSKBN20D21S. Published February 19, 2020. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
18. Bell B, Gallagher F. Who is spreading COVID-19 misinformation and why. https://abcnews.go.com/US/spreading-covid-19-misinformation/story?id= 70615995. Published May 26, 2020. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
19. Achenbach J, McGinley L. Another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic: trust in government science. Published October 11, 2020. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
20. Simas EN, Clifford S, Kirkland JH. How empathic concern fuels political polarization. Am Political Sci Rev 2020;114:258–269
 
21. Yarchi M, Baden C, Kligler-Vilenchik N. Political polarization on the digital sphere: a cross-platform, over-time analysis of interactional, positional, and affective polarization on social media. Political Commun 2020:1–42
 
22. Niburski K, Niburski O. Impact of Trump's promotion of unproven COVID19 treatments and subsequent Internet trends: observational study. J Med Internet Res 2020;22:e20044
 
23. Lee JJ, Kang K-A, Wang MP, et al. Associations between COVID-19 misinformation exposure and belief With COVID-19 knowledge and preventive behaviors: cross-sectional online study. J Med Internet Res 2020;22:e22205
 
24. Cheng C, Ebrahimi OV, Lau YC. Maladaptive coping with the infodemic and sleep disturbance in the COVID-19 pandemic. J Sleep Res 2020:e13235
 
25. Niemiec E. COVID-19 and misinformation. EMBO Rep 2020;21:e51420
 
26. Miller A. Conflict and controversies cloud the image of the CDC. https:// www.gpb.org/news/2020/10/14/conflict-and-controversies-cloud-the-imageof-the-cdc. Published October 14, 2020. Accessed September 18, 2021
 
27. Stobbe M. New CDC director takes over beleaguered agency amid crisis. https://apnews.com/article/rochelle-walensky-cdc-director-2cc9b9774f0712 99025209143fccc28a. Published January 20, 2021. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
28. Anwar A, Malik M, Raees V, et al. Role of mass media and public health communications in the COVID-19 pandemic. Cureus 2020;12:e10453
 
29. Biasio LR, Bonaccorsi G, Lorini C, et al. Assessing COVID-19 vaccine literacy: a preliminary online survey. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2021;17: 1304–1312
 
30. Eysenbach G. How to fight an infodemic: the four pillars of infodemic management. J Med Internet Res 2020;22:e21820
 
31. United Nations Department of Global Communications. UN tackles ‘infodemic’ of misinformation and cybercrime in COVID-19 crisis. https://www.un.org/en/ un-coronavirus-communications-team/un-tackling-%E2%80%98infodemic% E2%80%99-misinformation-and-cybercrime-covid-19. Published 2020. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
32. Tangcharoensathien V, Calleja N, Nguyen T, et al. Framework for managing the COVID-19 infodemic: methods and results of an online, crowdsourced WHO technical consultation. J Med Internet Res 2020;22:e19659
 
33. World Health Organization. Managing the COVID-19 infodemic: promoting healthy behaviours and mitigating the harm from misinformation and disinformation. Joint statement by WHO, UN, UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, UNAIDS, ITU, UN Global Pulse, and IFRC. https://www.who.int/news/item/ 23-09-2020-managing-the-covid-19-infodemic-promoting-healthy-behavioursand-mitigating-the-harm-from-misinformation-and-disinformation. Published September 23, 2020. Accessed September 18, 2021
 
34. Horton R. Offline: managing the COVID-19 vaccine infodemic. Lancet 2020;396:1474
 
35. Sandler R. It’s a ‘liberating feeling’: Fauci describes working under Biden v. Trump. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/21/its-aliberating-feeling-fauci-describes-working-under-biden-vs-trump/?sh= 61c572b33d95. Accessed January 22, 2021. Accessed January 25, 2021
 
36. American Medical Association. Code of Medical Ethics. https://www.amaassn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/principles-of-medicalethics.pdf. Accessed January 25, 2021.