A cool catch-phrase these days relate to the declaration of “dual pandemics”; to highlight the severity of certain circumstances, phrases such as dual “COVID and obesity”, “COVID and diabetes”, “COVID and poverty”, COVID and racism”, etc… etc…
Of course, disease severity is tightly linked with pre-existing conditions including advanced age, obesity, and diabetes, and social inequalities in many cases have really amplified during this pandemic. Here, we will focus on the dual “COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 infodemic.
In the past few days the President of the United States had some words against social media platforms for propagating misinformation regarding certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a super-complex topic; people say things for many different reasons
Firstly, there are three main different types of “misinformations”… that are easy to see. The most dangerous is the deliberate misinformation that comes from leaders and experts. For example, the “unsafe to wear a mask message that circulated from experts and leaders early in the pandemic”, seeded mistrust in many people. Anyone with common sense knew that a face covering would be somewhat protective, so that was an unfortunate message early on because it gave some people the impression that “that’s it… we’re going to have to accept being lied to by authorities through-out this”. That was a bad start – would’ve better to say “we’re running out masks for critical frontline workers, so make your own”; smart people looked stupid.
Of course, there was also some well-known false messages from leaders – hydroxychloroquine, bleach – which were bad (maybe a case of trying to inject enthusiasm), but still probably not as bad as the “don’t wear a mask – masks are unsafe” message; even totally unlearned people knew that face coverings would be protective; I remember people cursing at the TV when “authorities’ were portraying that message with a straight face. Anyway, apart from minor missteps, in general the authorities and experts have largely done a great job – and the creation and distribution of safe and effective vaccines in record time is like a miracle!
The second type of misinformation is really not “misinformation” as such … more complex because there is a lot heterogeneity associated with COVID-19 and the “facts” would vary in different circumstances. For example, the person who tests positive for COVID-19 and exhibits no symptoms at all, would have a very different experience of the disease compared to a person who ends up on oxygen support or in the ICU. Similarly, a person who is vaccinated and experiences absolutely no side effects, would have a different view of vaccination, than a person who has a fever and headaches for a few days, or a person that ends up with blood clots… or even worse. You get the picture… there are many uncertainties and a spectrum of different experiences associated with COVID-19. Information coming from a source with a different experience from the “accepted norm”, might not necessarily be considered “misinformation” – just different information. Of course, it creates confusion but the situation is confusing when you have an infection that can be asymptomatic in some people all the way to causing death in some people; and vaccines – the vast majority of people are absolutely but some do get nasty side-effects.
The third type of misinformation is people saying dumb things – this one is not easily manageable J! People say it they way they want to based on their values, belief systems etc… The way information systems are organised in this modern era – too difficult to control what comes out.
The question is are there particular “groups” that would that would purposefully and systematically propagate misinformation to protect their interests? Of course – that’s life! It is the responsibility of Governments to protect, and for a large part most have done a pretty good job! This could have been much worse.
Until next time …