Chowdhury Nashit, Khalid Ayisha, Turin Tanvir C
Department of Family Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, G012F, Health Sciences Centre, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1 Canada.
Z Gesundh Wiss. 2023;31(4):553-573. doi: 10.1007/s10389-021-01565-3. Epub 2021 May 1.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, impacted the flow of life and resulted in an immeasurable amount of socio-economic damage. However, not all of this damage is attributable to the disease itself; much of it has occurred due to the prevailing misinformation around COVID-19. This rapid integrative review will draw on knowledge from the literature about misinformation during previous abrupt large-scale infectious disease outbreaks to enable policymakers, governments and health institutions to proactively mitigate the spread and effect of misinformation.
For this rapid integrative review, we systematically searched MEDLINE and Google Scholar and extracted the literature on misinformation during abrupt large-scale infectious disease outbreaks since 2000. We screened articles using predetermined inclusion criteria. We followed an updated methodology for integrated reviews and adjusted it for our rapid review approach.
We found widespread misinformation in all aspects of large-scale infectious disease outbreaks since 2000, including prevention, treatment, risk factor, transmission mode, complications and vaccines. Conspiracy theories also prevailed, particularly involving vaccines. Misinformation most frequently has been reported regarding Ebola, and women and youth are particularly vulnerable to misinformation. A lack of scientific knowledge by individuals and a lack of trust in the government increased the consumption of misinformation, which is disseminated quickly by the unregulated media, particularly social media.
This review identified the nature and pattern of misinformation during large-scale infectious disease outbreaks, which could potentially be used to address misinformation during the ongoing COVID-19 or any future pandemic.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）已导致数十万人死亡，影响了生活节奏，并造成了无法估量的社会经济损失。然而，并非所有这些损失都可归因于疾病本身；其中很大一部分是由于围绕COVID-19普遍存在的错误信息所致。本快速综合综述将借鉴以往突发大规模传染病疫情期间有关错误信息的文献知识，以使政策制定者、政府和卫生机构能够积极减轻错误信息的传播及其影响。
对于本快速综合综述，我们系统检索了MEDLINE和谷歌学术，并提取了2000年以来突发大规模传染病疫情期间有关错误信息的文献。我们使用预先确定的纳入标准筛选文章。我们遵循了综合综述的更新方法，并根据我们的快速综述方法进行了调整。
我们发现，自2000年以来，在大规模传染病疫情的各个方面都存在广泛的错误信息，包括预防、治疗、危险因素、传播方式、并发症和疫苗。阴谋论也很盛行，尤其是涉及疫苗的阴谋论。关于埃博拉的错误信息报道最为频繁，妇女和青年特别容易受到错误信息的影响。个人缺乏科学知识以及对政府缺乏信任增加了错误信息的传播，这些错误信息通过不受监管的媒体，尤其是社交媒体迅速传播。
本综述确定了大规模传染病疫情期间错误信息的性质和模式，这可能有助于应对当前COVID-19疫情或未来任何大流行期间的错误信息。
