Medical Students and Youth-Led Efforts against Infodemic

Abstract

PurposeThe IFMSA, voicing the opinion of 1.3 million medical students from 131 countries, acknowledges the importance of health literacy in driving social change. Today, the Pandemic is accompanied by a global epidemic of misinformation, spreading rapidly through social media platforms and other outlets, posing a critical threat to public health due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As this problem continues to mount, it becomes even more evident that a unified approach is required to secure high levels of compliance with public health measures and combat the infodemic.Methods & MaterialsA global study was conducted by IFMSA, in collaboration with the WHO, composed of a survey to get data about all the organizations, institutions, NGOs, and other entities that focus on fact-checking and correcting misinformation about COVID-19. The survey was filled by medical students from the end of April to the end of May who reported name, type, the scope of work, languages, primary funding source, type, and source of information shared by the organization.ResultsWe discovered 182 initiatives from 62 countries worldwide that verified information in 48 languages. Social media, the internet, radio, SMS, printed media, and hearsay were identified as the main sources of misinformation. Video podcasts with experts, regular social media updates and newsletters, were described as best practices, in addition to debunking myths on a regular basis and verifying statements by public figures. Also, the quality of fact-checking differed between initiatives.ConclusionData showed that myths and false information are spreading through different means from public figures to daily social media outlets. Fighting misinformation should use innovative and accessible approaches, There is an urgent need for national initiatives and political engagement for myth-busting. IFMSA and WHO is following up by designing a platform to share fact-checking initiatives and recommendations openly, and by creating an AI system with Amazon to analyze articles in social media. Our surveys identified the need for fact-checking quality and quantity improvement and help provide an open-access source for worldwide and national fact-checking initiatives.