Advancing Infodemic Management in Risk Communication and Community Engagement in the WHO European Region: Implementation Guidance

"...guidance for national health authority focal points in risk communication and community engagement on preparedness and response for infodemic management..."

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) established an interdisciplinary area of scientific work called "infodemic management" (IM), which draws on data science, epidemiology, behavioural science, media science, and user experience to deal with the exploding volume and velocity of health information of varying veracity. The WHO European Region has focused its IM work on: social listening and monitoring of online signals (including rumours, misinformation, and disinformation); the effects of the infodemic on people's knowledge, beliefs, and behaviour; and efforts to deal with those effects through risk communication and community engagement (RCCE). Based on evidence and practical experience with IM in the WHO European Region, this guidance document offers operational support for IM preparedness, readiness, and response in public health emergencies.

The resource provides practical ways to guide IM and best practices in the technical area of RCCE. An introduction is followed by a section on the theoretical framework of the guidance, which defines and contextualises core concepts, describes the information ecosystem and its three constitutive landscapes (information, risk and response), and examines strategies for measuring IM response.

The core of the document describes how IM work is embedded in RCCE in the European Region. In short, IM and RCCE have the same overall goal: ensuring that communities at risk can take informed decisions about their health by effective exchange of information between experts and affected populations (risk communication) and strengthening trusted relationships and collaboration between response authorities and the communities (community engagement). The WHO European Region grounds its IM work in two models: the emergency cycle (with its phases of prevention, preparedness, readiness, response, and recovery) and the four core capacities of RCCE (ensuring transparency and early announcement of a real or potential risk; coordinating public communication; listening through two-way communication; and selecting effective channels and influencers).

The conclusion of the document briefly summarises the importance of IM and describes areas for further contributions and development of this work. A list of references and four annexes provide further information, including examples of IM work in major WHO offices, IM quick-start guides on maintenance and response, and further reading.

Rather than offering specific, one-size-fits-all recommendations, this document puts forth options and approaches that may be applied in each context, including in other regions, at other headquarters, or by other stakeholders. All in all, WHO hopes "that the ideas presented will further discussion in this rapidly developing area of work and connect it to relevant work in rumour management and social listening and thus ensure effective support to operationalize regional, national and subnational initiatives while improving the sustainability of the renewed effort."