Duong Duy Nhat Minh March 08, 2024

English 10 Mr Swaggert Tacio

COVID-19 "Infodemic": Causes and Impacts of Misperception

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has proven to be one of

the most catastrophic disease outbreaks in human history, totalling almost 7 million

deaths from over 773 million cases as of 2023, according to the World Health

Organization (WHO, 2023). Along with the severe worldwide social and economic

disruption it has brought about, an unprecedented "infodemic" has been witnessed,

defined by WHO (2022) as an overwhelming surge of misinformation in digital and

physical environments during a disease outbreak. Stemming from social media use

(Durodolu & Ibenne, 2020; Ali, 2020) and health/eHealth illiteracy (Baur, 2020; Berkman

et al., 2010; Kindig et al., 2004), this phenomenon has caused even more turmoil in the

midst of the deadly pandemic, fueling distrust towards health institutions and programs

(The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2020), in addition to complacency among the public

(Bridgman et al., 2020).

One of the primary causes of the COVID-19 infodemic is the excessive exposure

to social media. Empirical studies have corroborated the strong correlation between

social media use and the misperceptions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the bulk

of the globe has gone online, many have relied on the internet as their primary, and

possibly only, source of news. However, this overreliance has fostered an ideal

environment for the circulation of misinformation, as social media's unique features

encourage the rapid propagation of content with negligible superintendence (American

Psychological Association, 2023). Consequently, this has allowed for the uncontrollable

dissemination of misleading information, conspiracy theories and the like, instilling them

into the public. According to The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, such
misconceptions can result in lower levels of social distancing compliance. In particular,

Bridgman et al. (2020) maintains that misconceptions can distort people's risk

perception, emotions and knowledge of COVID-19, therefore instigating complacency

and tendencies to neglect preventative action.

Another driving force behind the infodemic is the low level of health and

eHealth literacy, to which many peer-reviewed articles attribute various elements, such

as low socioeconomic status, language barriers, and tech-illiteracy (Chen et al., 2021;

MedlinePlus, 2020; Xie et al., 2021). As a result, the uninitiated in this region may have

difficulty finding, evaluating, and applying credible and relevant health information

online, and may also employ unreliable or pseudoscientific methods in general disease

prevention and treatment. The omnipresence of this problem is extremely concerning,

especially since it undermines the public's trust towards health institutions and

programmes. Friis et al. (2020) concurs that those with low health literacy may

misperceive legitimate health services and products as harmful or unnecessary. They

may also feel marginalized or discriminated by the health system and thus lose trust in

the authorities, or otherwise fail to see the rationale and benefits of credible health

programmes, as claimed by Yagi et al. (2022).

To recapitulate, the COVID-19 Infodemic has irrefutably wreaked havoc on

millions of lives worldwide and left a huge stain on the reputation of the health sector.

Misperceptions of the pandemic, more specifically, the stupendous amount of non-peer-

reviewed or unsubstantiated information online, in addition to low health literacy, cause

this catastrophe.

References
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