14:00 Geneva I 8:00 New York I 17:30 New Delhi I 20:00 Manila
Thursday, 13 July 2023
During epidemics the information environment may be filled with a lot of questions and concerns that are not easily addressed, this becomes a challenge with increased low quality health information and misinformation circulating. Such information has the potential to spread at a fast rate both online and offline in communities impacting individuals’ health decision making. As a way of responding to these rising issues in infodemics and provide support to health workers in linking with the public, WHO and UNICEF, in collaboration with their networks and partners, have published an innovative manual and accompanying tools for analysts who conduct social listening to develop infodemic insights.
An infodemic is defined as an overabundance of information, accurate or not, in the digital and physical space accompanying an acute health event such as an outbreak or epidemic. Infodemic insights are developed through compilation of narratives (description of series of events) that are generated across various data sources, which are often captured through social listening. The manual will be evidence-based and includes reproducible steps for integrating analysis across online and offline datasets to produce infodemic insights and recommendations for action to improve public health.
Panelists
- Dr Sylvie Briand, Director, Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO
- Dr Ephrem T. Lemango, Associate Director of Immunization, UNICEF
- Surani Abeyesekera, Social and Behaviour Change Specialist, Immunization Demand Team, Program Group, Health Section, UNICEF
- Tina Purnat, Team Lead for Infodemic Management, Unit for High Impact Events Preparedness, Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO
- Dr Yahya Disu, Head of the RCCE working group and leader of the infodemic management team, Nigeria CDC
- Omar Meksassi, Global Data Quality Lead for Internews
Moderator
- Tim Nguyen, Unit head, Unit for High Impact Events Preparedness, Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO