Infodemic: Too much information including false or misleading information during disease outbreak

Carlos Mendez (São Paulo, Brazil) watched his father die from COVID-19 in April 2020, gasping for breath in their cramped apartment, refusing to go to the hospital until it was too late. His father’s death wasn’t inevitable. It was caused by misinformation—an infodemic that killed as surely as the virus itself.

“My father saw videos on WhatsApp claiming COVID-19 was a hoax created by pharmaceutical companies to sell vaccines. He saw posts saying hospitals were killing patients to inflate death statistics. He read messages claiming hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were miracle cures being suppressed by governments. He believed all of it,” Carlos recalled, his voice heavy with grief and anger.

When Carlos’s father developed COVID-19 symptoms—fever, cough, difficulty breathing—he refused medical care. He self-medicated with ivermectin purchased from a veterinary supply store. He drank bleach diluted in water, following advice from a viral video claiming it killed the virus. He avoided the hospital, convinced doctors would deliberately harm him.

“I begged him to see a doctor. I showed him information from the Ministry of Health, from WHO, from reputable medical sources. But he trusted WhatsApp messages from strangers more than he trusted his own son. He said I’d been brainwashed by mainstream media and government propaganda. He said he was doing his own research, protecting himself from medical tyranny,” Carlos explained.

By the time Carlos’s father’s condition became critical and he finally agreed to hospitalization, his lungs were severely damaged. He died three days later, aged 58—a preventable death caused by believing misinformation instead of medical science.

“My father didn’t die from lack of medical care—Brazil had hospital capacity at that point. He died from the infodemic. He drowned in a flood of false information that convinced him to reject lifesaving treatment. The virus infected his lungs, but misinformation infected his mind. Both proved fatal.”

According to WHO, an infodemic is too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak. It causes confusion and risk-taking behaviours that can harm health. It also leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines the public health response. An infodemic can intensify or lengthen outbreaks when people are unsure about what they need to do to protect their health and the health of people around them. With growing digitization – an expansion of social media and internet use – information can spread more rapidly. This can help to more quickly fill information voids but can also amplify harmful messages.

For more on health communication, see our articles on health literacy and digital health challenges at ObserverVoice.com.

Infodemic Management Strategies

Infodemic management is the systematic use of risk- and evidence-based analysis and approaches to manage the infodemic and reduce its impact on health behaviours during health emergencies. Infodemic management aims to enable good health practices through 4 types of activities: Listening to community concerns and questions, Promoting understanding of risk and health expert advice, Building resilience to misinformation, and Engaging and empowering communities to take positive action.

Member States have recognized the importance and need of an infodemic response through recent resolutions including WHA 73.1 and WHA 74/A/CONF./2, coming together in solidarity and responding to calls for actions. Therefore, WHO is building partnerships across all societies to respond to the COVID-19 infodemic and is developing country tools for infodemic management that can be used now and for future infodemics.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO has worked with the UN family, tech sector, media, civil society and other amplifying communities to understand concerns, co-develop messages, extend the reach of health information, and to respond to the information needs of communities. WHO has also worked with academia to develop a public health research agenda for infodemic management, and with a diverse group of experts to develop a competency framework and trainings in infodemic management.

WHO’s EPI-WIN: WHO Information Network for Epidemics coordinates efforts. WHO’s Digital Health and Innovation team, Corporate comms, Research, and Science Division support initiatives. WHO provides Health literacy fact sheet, Disinformation and public health Q&A, and Cyber-attacks on critical health infrastructure Q&A.

Related topics include Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Global health ethics, Research, Digital health, and Mental health. For more on information challenges, see our article on digital health innovations at ObserverVoice.com.

Research, Innovation and Tools

WHO is working with partners across society to strengthen the scientific discipline of infodemiology. Through partnerships, WHO works to bolster digital capabilities and leverage social inoculation principles to foster higher digital and health literacy, build resilience to misinformation, and deliver innovative ways to reach communities with reliable health information. WHO developed public health research agenda providing guidance for where to invest in research to better understand, measure and respond to infodemics.

WHO established EARS (Early AI-supported Response with Social Listening), an early AI-supported response and social listening tool to help health authorities quickly identify rising narratives and “information voids” that interfere with people getting the information they need to make good health choices. WHO runs weekly aggregate of publicly available social and news media, web analytics and online search data to identify and understand online infodemic-related conversation patterns. WHO conducts visual network analyses to better understand the ecosystems where misinformation is able to thrive. WHO established repository of active COVID-19 fact-checking groups that verify COVID-19 related claims in more than 40 languages. WHO is refining AI-based infodemic observatory to assess current status of misinformation and disinformation diffusion.

Recent Publications and Training

January 2025 WHO published Impact of the COVID-19 infodemic on frontline workers and health systems: analysis of story-telling approach outlining analysis of 68 collected interviews. February 2024 WHO published Mainstreaming infodemic management in learning and teaching programmes summarizing WHO Technical Consultation. July 2023 WHO published How to build an infodemic insights report in six steps addressing gap between health guidance and public understanding. September 2022 WHO published WHO policy brief: COVID-19 infodemic management with key points on training health workers.

WHO provides 1st WHO Infodemic Manager training, 2nd WHO Infodemic Manager training booklet, and 3rd WHO Infodemic Manager training. WHO offers Infodemic management course series on OpenWHO providing overview of strategies, good practices, methods and tools. WHO publishes Infodemic Management News Flash biweekly.

March 2025 WHO partnered with Thailand and Sri Lanka to pilot new tool to combat and address infodemics. October 2023 WHO released New infodemic management tools to support pandemic planning and preparedness. July 2023 WHO and UNICEF launched manual on 6 steps to build an infodemic insights report. June 2023 WHO announced Learn how to manage the infodemic in new OpenWHO courses. April 2023 WHO highlighted population’s health information needs during health emergencies.

Fighting Infodemics Through Community Action

Carlos transformed his grief into action. He became a community health educator, working with WHO-supported infodemic management programs in Brazil. He trains community health workers to identify and counter misinformation, teaches digital literacy in low-income neighborhoods, and helps people evaluate health information critically.

“I teach people what I wish my father had known: how to identify misinformation, how to check sources, how to distinguish credible medical information from viral lies. I explain that anyone can create a professional-looking video or post, that popularity doesn’t equal accuracy, that anecdotes aren’t evidence, that conspiracy theories exploit fear and uncertainty,” Carlos explained.

“WHO’s infodemic management framework provided the tools and training I needed. I learned about social listening—monitoring what communities are saying and believing. I learned about rapid response—quickly addressing emerging misinformation with accurate information. I learned about building trust—connecting communities with credible health authorities. I learned that fighting infodemics requires understanding how information spreads, why people believe misinformation, and how to rebuild trust in science,” Carlos continued.

“We use WHO’s EARS platform to track misinformation trends in real-time. When we see dangerous health claims spreading in our communities, we respond immediately—not with condescending lectures, but with empathy, accurate information, and acknowledgment of legitimate concerns. We work with local influencers, community leaders, and trusted voices to amplify credible health information. We don’t just fight misinformation—we fill information voids with trustworthy content before misinformation fills them,” Carlos emphasized.

“The infodemic killed my father and millions of others during COVID-19. But WHO’s leadership on infodemic management is building global capacity to recognize, prevent, and respond to information chaos during health emergencies. We’re training infodemic managers, developing monitoring tools, creating response frameworks, building community resilience. Every person we teach to evaluate health information critically is someone who won’t die like my father did—drowning in misinformation while rejecting lifesaving medical care. WHO’s infodemic management efforts are saving lives by ensuring that during health crises, accurate information reaches people faster and more effectively than dangerous lies.”

For more information, visit WHO’s infodemic topic page or explore related content at ObserverVoice.com.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. WHO Infodemic Topic Page
2. EARS: Early AI-supported Response with Social Listening
3. WHO EPI-WIN: Information Network for Epidemics
4. OpenWHO Infodemic Management Course Series
5. WHO Infodemic Management News Flash

Disclaimer: This article is an adaptation of publicly available information from WHO’s Infodemic
health topic page (WHO, Geneva. Licence: CC BYNC-SA 3.0 IGO). WHO is not responsible for the
content or accuracy of this adaptation. This content is for informational and educational purposes
only and does not constitute medical advice. ObserverVoice.com is a news and information platform
— not a healthcare provider.

Observer Voice is the one stop site for National, International news, Sports, Editor’s Choice, Art/culture contents, Quotes and much more. We also cover historical contents. Historical contents includes World History, Indian History, and what happened today. The website also covers Entertainment across the India and World.

Follow Us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, & LinkedIn