Avoidable deaths due to infodemic about COVID‐19 – 2020 – Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

An ‘infodemic’ is a super‐abundance of information about a topic, of highly variable accuracy, often disseminated through social media, such that people struggle to know what advice to follow. Infodemics associated with epidemics or pandemics such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola and COVID‐19 include rumours, stigmatisation and conspiracy theories. Donald Trump suggested drinking disinfectant might kill severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. A widely circulated myth that drinking highly concentrated alcohol could kill the virus caused about 800 deaths, 5876 hospitalisations and permanently blinded 60 people, mainly in Iran, who drank methanol. ¹ A team of social scientists, physicians and epidemiologists retrospectively searched mainstream and social media and health websites from 31 December 2019 until 5 April 2020 for infodemics related to COVID‐19.¹ The researchers identified 2311 reports of rumours, stigma and conspiracy theories from 87 countries (Fig. 1). The claims were about modes of transmission, clinical features and mortality (24%); control measures (21%); treatment and cure (19%); origin or cause of disease (15%), violence (1%) and miscellaneous (20%). Most (1856; 82%) claims were false. Infodemics have the potential to cause harm and to adversely affect evidence‐based public health recommendations and regulations.

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