Misinformation during a public health crisis is a significant threat.Check out this essay titled Civil Society's Role in a Public Health Crisis, available here.
The potential impact of uncensored backchannel data, by way of Twitter, text messages, emails, blogs, photos and videos, could result in devastating and misleading information. The consequences would include panic, drug shortages, supply hording and misguided quarantine, diagnostic and treatment efforts . This threat could be as impactful as the actual pandemic itself.
A misinformation containment communication strategy is urgently needed- one with truthful, purposeful information that serves as a ' communication inoculation"- which is nicely explored in the essay.
The time to plan is now, post event is too late.
For a previous blog post and Facebook Lie video on Pandemic Richmond, follow this link.
