While Covid-19 is not the first pandemic the world has known, it exists in the age of technological and information explosion. In the last two years, the world and especially India have witnessed disruptions in health care, education, the economy and in life as we knew it.
We are also witnessing an uptick in messages received in family groups and social networks about the Chinese virus, home remedies that could prevent and ‘cure’ Covid, apocalyptic predictions of millions of dead, and other conspiracy theories. Catalyzed by such misinformation, the ripple effects of the pandemic disruption have had a colossal impact on all aspects of human life, especially the already sprawling invisible mental health crisis.
Due to information overload and a lack of concerted crisis communication, a worldwide infodemic has also been brewing alongside the pandemic, with a spillover and magnitude equivalent to the virus itself. While not everyone has been particularly affected by the virus, the uncertainty of the pandemic generated widespread misinformation that in turn reached every corner of the country.
With the onset of the pandemic, the visible cloud of panic and uncertainty translated into invisible mental health issues. Indeed, the pandemic disrupted and triggered psychosocial stressors through increased cases of domestic violence, fragmented family and social relationships, increased alcohol dependence, substance abuse, and technology addiction, among other things. The added layer of misinformation has only further fueled the psychological and mental health crisis.
Furthermore, the media, especially the vernacular, reported specific bits of isolated or context-less scientific developments that were misleading in nature. This, in turn, led to large-scale mistrust, vaccine hesitancy, and other domino effects such as panic and anxiety among the population. Even in the current context of Omicron, social networks have once again hit the panic button.
A widely shared social media post claims that Omicron is more deadly than all other variants and cannot be detected by RT-PCR tests. A parallel narrative, on the other hand, claims that Omicron is very mild, rather an equivalent of the common cold, which again is quite misleading and in fact dangerous given that less than 50% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated. This is similar to the distorted and misleading reporting that has led to confusion over the last two years and it seems that we are back to square one, with no lessons learned from our past.
While the phenomenon of health misinformation is not new, it is a fairly complex issue that, if left unchecked, can snowball and seriously affect millions of people, leading to a public health crisis . Indeed, it is pertinent to discuss the repercussions of misinformation on mental health, a crisis that was boiling over even before the pandemic.
There are two types of misinformation about mental health. The first is fake news that triggers mental health problems; for example, Covid misinformation has not only affected mental well-being, but has caused paranoia and anxiety in real time and on a large scale around the world.
Second, existing misinformation (stigma, myths, and misconceptions) in the mental health space that led to undiagnosed illnesses, which in turn resulted in substance abuse and addiction, among other things, directly impacting public health.
While global health authorities have prescribed an overview, symptoms, and precautions for the pandemic, similar precautions and guidelines were lacking for the infodemic. The disruptive effect of the infodemic on mental health is as worrying as the pandemic and requires immediate attention. Just as it is important to wear masks and maintain physical distancing because of the virus, it is necessary to practice ‘digital distancing’ and fact-checking in the context of the infodemic. This includes reporting and responsible consumption of news and anything read on social media. Given information overload, limited attention spans, and algorithms based on cognitive biases, it’s easy to fall prey to misinformation.
However, the good news is that there is an antidote for this, but it requires the effort of the readers/consumers. While there is no definite method to address the misinformation crisis, the first rational step is to practice ‘digital distancing’: every piece of information should be taken with a grain of salt, i.e. it is important to pay attention to the obvious, outrageous and notoriously strange headlines. .
Practice digital hygiene, which includes understanding some context; pause, think and ask questions before consuming and above all share information. Staying informed is good, but it may not be necessary to consume all the Covid statistics available online (especially before bed).
It is important to remember that science is a self-correcting mechanism and there are no absolute black and white areas. All it takes is one pointless advance into the wrong hands to create panic and chaos on social media platforms.
Therefore, two years after the pandemic, while information/literature continues to grow, ideally no data should interrupt or throw the reader off balance. In this regard, it is pertinent to inculcate fact checking as an essential life skill to protect yourself from all kinds of fake news and seek correct information from authentic sources (eg WHO, CDC, ICMR, etc.).
The role of fact-checkers cannot be overstated, especially in the field of medical news due to the ongoing pandemic. As someone rightly said, it is not the pandemic of the unvaccinated but the endemic of the uninformed.
Nanditha Kalidoss
FACTLY Health Scholar
Dr Debanjan Banerjee
Consultant geriatric psychiatrist, Kolkata
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