Misinformation and Disinformation Toolkit for Clinicians and Public Health Workers

Misinformation and Disinformation Toolkit for Clinicians and Public Health Workers

What is Misinformation and Disinformation?

The onset of the COVID pandemic spawned high volumes of mis- and disinformation, which resulted in an awareness of the negative and deadly impacts of misinformation and disinformation to people’s health. The phenomenon of sharing incorrect information that impacts the opinions and actions of the public has intensified in today’s digital era, where information and opinions can be easily accessed and shared. Often in the form of anti-science, misinformation and disinformation spans across countless topics, including climate justice. Inadvertent misinformation in the form of sharing outdated information that is no longer accurate is also an issue, especially with health topics that evolve rapidly. For clinicians and public health workers, it is critical we understand what misinformation and disinformation are and the steps we can take to protect ourselves, our fellow health care workers, and the public, from its negative impacts. Here are some primers on misinformation and disinformation: 

• What is Misinformation and Disinformation? + How to Protect Information Ted Talk - Perdue University 
• WHO - What Is the Infodemic? 
• Managing Misinformation - Harvard University 

Learn the Ins and Outs of Identifying False Information

Use the following resources to help you learn more about protecting yourself from misinformation and disinformation. 

• MCN’s Deconstructing Health Messages: Five Key Questions 
  • Prezi with Resources — English | Spanish 
  • Five Key Questions Handout — English | Spanish 
• WHO Online consultation meeting to discuss global principles for identifying credible sources of health information on social media 
• OpenWHO infodemic management courses 
• How to Spot Misleading Science Reporting – Berkeley University of California 
• Misinformation and Disinformation: A Guide for Protecting Yourself | Security.org 
• Video: Misinformation, Disinformation and How to Protect Yourself 

What You Can Do About It

Below are action steps, tools, and resources for educating and protecting your community against misinformation and disinformation. 

Report Misinformation 

• WHO: How to report misinformation online 

Share Handouts 

• MCN’s Health Misinformation Handout with Resources 

Access and Disseminate Other Tools and Resources

• General
  • Fight false information through language justice: Language Justice Toolkit — The Praxis Project (Available in English and Spanish) 
  • Google reverse image tool and how-to guide and how-to video (English, Spanish). Users can see whether an image is old and possibly where it originated from. 
  • Health and misinformation-related videos in various languages 
  • American Psychological Association Misinformation and Disinformation Resources 
  • United Nations High Commission on Refugees Misinformation Factsheet: Types of Misinformation and Disinformation 
  • Debunking Handbook 2020 | Center For Climate Change Communication (Available in 19 different languages) 
  • Fact checking tool: Search – Factcheck.org 
  • Fact checking tool: Snopes 
• COVID-19
  • COVID Mythbusters: Advice for the public 
  • WHO WhatsApp COVID Health Alert Tool 
  • WHO - Article: How the infodemic negatively affects people 
  • WHO - Statement on combatting misinformation and disinformation 
  • COVID Resources in Indigenous Languages – CIELO 
  • MCN’s Panel Discussion on Health Misinformation and Social Media (English and Spanish) 
  • Health Misinformation: Preparing for the COVID-19 Vaccine | Migrant Clinicians Network 
• Other Health Topics
  • October 2023 - WHO: New infodemic management tools to support pandemic planning and preparedness for pandemic influenza and respiratory pathogen disease events 
  • WHO Ears: Early AI-supported Response with Social Listening for respiratory pathogens, COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccines 
    • Report on WHO EARS: JMIR Infodemiology - Using Machine Learning Technology (Early Artificial Intelligence–Supported Response With Social Listening Platform) to Enhance Digital Social Understanding for the COVID-19 Infodemic: Development and Implementation Study 
• Climate
  • Katharine Hayhoe – Climate Scientist FAQ  
  • Environmental Defense Fund – Climate Information: Battling climate myths and fighting for the truth 
  • Climate misinformation is a barrier to climate action: The Natural Resources Defense Council - How to Spot—and Help Stop—Climate Misinformation 

Host A Presentation for Fellow Clinicians and Your Community 

• MCN Presentation on Misinformation and Disinformation - with presenter notes - English and Spanish

Learn About Health Communication 

• Read peer-reviewed journals to stay up to date on strategies, models, and information on health communications and persuasion:
  • American Journal of Public Health – Misinformation Edition 
  • Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review 
  • Misinformation: Susceptibility, spread, and interventions to immunize the public | Nature Medicine 
  • The Psychological Drivers of Misinformation Belief and its Resistance to Correction | Nature Reviews Psychology 
  • The Spread of True and False News Online | Science 
  • MCN's Recommendations for Peer-reviewed Journals for Health Communication

Read A Book, Share the List! 

• Fight against false by communicating correct information impactfully: 'Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade’ by Robert Cialdini
• Learn about how the news media works: ‘The News Media in Peurto Rico: Journalism in Colonial Settings and In Times of Crisis’ and other books by Federico Subervi-Vélez (English, Spanish)
• The Mass Media and Latino Politics. Studies of U.S. Media Content, Campaign Strategies and Survey Research: 1984-2004 by Federico Subervi-Velez 

See the Spanish toolkit here.