The United Kingdom and WHO collaborate to manage the infodemicActing on the wrong information can kill.
In the first 3 months of 2020, nearly 6 000 people around the globe were hospitalized because of coronavirus misinformation, recent research suggests.
During this period, researchers say at least 800 people may have died due to misinformation related to COVID-19*.At its extreme, death can be the tragic outcome of what the World Health Organization has termed the infodemic, an overabundance of information — some accurate, some not — that spreads alongside a disease outbreak.
False information runs the gamut, from discrediting the threat of COVID-19 to conspiracy theories that vaccines could alter human DNA.