COVID-19 Infodemic and Public Trust from the Perspective of Public and Global Mental Health.

Abstract

Crisis usually involves participants who trust and distrust each other, commonly in the same time. COVID-19 infodemic induced confidence crisis and distrust in authorities, science communities, governments and institutions can lead to harmful health behaviors and ill mental health and become a serious threat to public and global mental health as another kind of virus. Distrust mentality, conspiracy thinking and blame games may have detrimental effects not just on the individual level, but on the level of the whole groups, communities and global world. Public distrust and mistrust are related to the crisis in the domain of social and political relations, not only on the same country level, but also between different countries at regional or global level. Dynamics between public trust and mental health is a complex and bidirectional, ill mental health is causing and enhancing the inclination to confidence crisis, distrust, conspiracy theories and blame games and vice versa confidence crisis, distrust, conspiracy thinking and blame games are leading to ill mental health. It is important to have a holistic transdisciplinary integrative understanding of these dynamics and science-based treatment and prevention.