Management of COVID by Healthy Behavior Promotion and Fake Information Prevention

  

Managing the COVID-19 information epidemic by Promoting healthy behaviors and reducing the harm of errors and false information

World Health Organization, United Nations, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Development Programme, UNESCO, UNAIDS, ITU, United Nations "Global Pulse" program and the alliance of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies statement

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the first large-scale use of technology and social media to keep people safe, informed, productive, and connected. 

At the same time, the technology that we rely on to stay in touch and understand is creating and expanding an information epidemic that continues to undermine the global response and endanger measures to control the pandemic.

 What is information pandemic?

The information epidemic is the excess of online and offline information, including deliberate dissemination of misinformation to undermine public health response measures and advance the alternative agenda of groups or individuals. 

Mistakes and false information can harm physical and mental health, increase stigma, threaten hard-won health achievements, and lead to poor implementation of public health measures, thereby reducing their effectiveness and jeopardizing the ability of countries to end the pandemic.

 

Wrong information on epidemic can cause loss of life

 Without proper trust and correct information, diagnostic test kits will be discarded, immunization or promotion of effective vaccines will fail to achieve their goals, and the virus will continue to spread.

 

In addition, false information is polarizing the public debate on COVID-19 related issues, amplifying hate speech, exacerbating the risks of conflict, violence and human rights violations, and threatening the long-term prospects for advancing democracy, human rights, and social cohesion.

 

In this context, the Secretary-General of the United Nations launched the UN Information Dissemination Response in April 2020 to combat the dissemination of false and false information. 

The United Nations also issued a guidance document on handling and combating hate speech related to COVID-19 (May 11, 2020).

 

At the World Health Assembly in May 2020, WHO Member States passed Resolution WHA73.1 on the response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

 The resolution recognizes that managing the information epidemic is a key part of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. It calls on member states to provide reliable content about COVID-19, take measures to combat false and false information, and use various digital technologies to respond to the epidemic. 

What is the resolution to information pandemic?

The resolution also calls on international organizations to deal with errors and false information in the digital domain, work to prevent harmful online activities from compromising health response measures, and support the provision of science-based data to the public.

 

The United Nations system and civil society organizations are using their collective expertise and knowledge to respond to the information epidemic. 

At the same time, as the epidemic continues to cause uncertainty and anxiety, there is an urgent need to take more forceful actions to manage the information epidemic, and have clear roles and responsibilities in countries, multilateral organizations, civil society, and in combating false and false information. To adopt a coordinated approach among all other actors.

 

The UN calls on member states to formulate and implement an action plan to manage the information epidemic, including promoting the timely dissemination of accurate information based on science and evidence to all communities, especially high-risk groups; while respecting freedom of expression, prevent and combat false and false information Spread.

 

The UN urges the Member States to engage with their communities when formulating national action plans, listen to their opinions, and empower communities to find solutions and build resilience against errors and false information.

 

Information Pandemic Harms more than COVID: The UN

The UN calls on all other stakeholders, including media and social media platforms that disseminate false and false information, researchers and technicians who can design and develop effective strategies and tools to respond to the information epidemic, civil society leaders and influential people, cooperate with the UN system, member states and each other, and further strengthen actions to disseminate accurate information and prevent the spread of errors and false information.

 

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