Ensuring dissemination of clear and accurate health information during the 2019 novel Coronavirus pandemic can encourage healthy behaviors that help protect and save lives. However, public health officials are facing an unprecedented number of misinformation online that may undermine these efforts. Misinformation, defined as false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead, can be countered with effective factchecking tools. The World Health Organization has coined this phenomenon an “infodemic” and are developing a system to track false COVID-19 claims online in partnership with an international network of trusted fact checkers.
This survey aims to perform a landscape analysis of factchecking of health information, assess the needs and potential to engage factcheckers in collaborations.
Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7DP2JLZ
Deadline for response is 24 November 2020.
Project goals and objectives
- Highlight best practices for managing COVID-19 misinformation/infodemic
- Gather data to inform the dsicussion of standardized processes for factchecking organizations to track and address health misinformation.
- Enable WHO to assess the factchecking organizations’ needs and strategies in engaging the health organizations and other stakeholders s in regional and global collaborations for public health and emergency preparedness. This would form a landscape analysis of factchecking health claims.
Results of the survey will feed into discussions with health authorities during the WHO whole-of-society conference on infodemic management (November-December 2020).
Contact infodemicmanagement@who.int for further information.
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