From Pandemic to Infodemic

 

The term infodemic ( a blend of information and epidemic) is not very new. However, it has become popular lately, with the spread of Covid-19 related news. The Cambridge dictionary has incorporated it.

The Merriam-Webster editors commented last spring that they were “watching” this word although it had not yet entered their dictionary. In fact, almost a year later, a search for it in Merriam-Webster still produces no result. Where it is discussed, here is how they define it: “a rapid and far-reaching spread of both accurate and inaccurate information about something, such as a disease. As facts, rumors, and fears mix and disperse, it becomes difficult to learn essential information about an issue” (“Words We’re Watching: Infodemic”).

According to Merriam-Webster, the term was coined by Washington Post journalist David Rothkopf in relation to SARS back in 2003:

What exactly do I mean by the "infodemic"? A few facts, mixed with fear, speculation and rumor, amplified and relayed swiftly worldwide by modern information technologies, have affected national and international economies, politics and even security in ways that are utterly disproportionate with the root realities. It is a phenomenon we have seen with greater frequency in recent years—not only in our reaction to SARS, for example, but also in our response to terrorism and even to relatively minor occurrences such as shark sightings.
David Rothkopf, The Washington Post, 11 May 2003

Last spring, the World Health Organization warned about misinformation and disinformation surrounding Covid-19 in “Let’s Flatten the Infodemic Curve”. The site encourages information literacy, from checking sources, authors, and dates, to examining evidence and biases. More recently, The Guardian newspaper published an opinion piece by Oxford Professor Melinda Mills entitled “We Must Prevent a Vaccine 'Infodemic' from Fuelling the Covid Pandemic”. Mills fears that researchers’ work on the vaccines will be wasted if anti-vaccination campaigners’ misinformation is not counteracted using effective communication with the public, including local dialogue rather than one-way information-heavy communications.

Similarly, the World Economic Forum is concerned: “There's No Vaccine for the Infodemic - So How Can We Combat the Virus of Misinformation?”. Information literacy is the key, as opposed to – for example - “plandemic” conspiracy theories.