This article was written by Hannah Lee of Richard Montgomery High School
Underneath the COVID-19 headlines that overwhelm the media today, there is another hidden crisis: an infodemic, accompanied by a widespread lack of health literacy.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an infodemic as “an overabundance of information—some accurate and some not—that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.”
After much clicking around, one can find that figures on different websites often contradict each other. According to Yale Medicine, this is because different news outlets have different ways of collecting and reporting information. Some report only confirmed COVID-19 cases, while others report both confirmed and presumptive cases.
“Information overload is incredibly anxiety-provoking—which is true even when the information is accurate,” Dr. Jaimie Meyer, an infectious diseases specialist, said in an interview with Yale Medicine.
“But here, if people get the wrong information from unreliable sources, we may have more trouble slowing the spread of the virus. And we can’t afford to get this wrong.”
To avoid falling victim to the current infodemic, Dr. Meyer recommends examining the reliability of a source by checking if its information fits in with what is already known. Additionally, she recommends taking extra caution if its publications are funded and hence possibly biased. State health departments’ websites are accurate and reliable sources for COVID-19 data.
In addition to the issue of faulty information, there is a widespread inability to understand and apply COVID-19 information correctly. According to Inquiries Journal, 90 percent of adults today lack sufficient health literacy, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines as “the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.”
Basic health literacy is “understanding how to contact a nurse practitioner, when to call an ambulance, and how to read a prescription label,” Inquiries Journal describes. According to an article at Wiley Online Library, health illiteracy especially impacts those of low education and socioeconomic status. Yet anyone can be health illiterate in the face of new situations and diseases. To be more informed, anyone with a new disease should learn more about what it is and how it affects them personally. The government and community also have a responsibility to provide simple, reliable information. But the aforementioned infodemic worsens this; rumors and confusing numbers cause uninformed health decision-making.
Indeed, in some cases, health illiteracy during an infodemic is more dangerous than the virus itself. In an article targeting myths related to COVID-19, WHO addresses dangerous false assumptions like that of drinking bleach as a cure and using a damaging UV light to disinfect hands, as well as misleading claims like the virus’ spread through 5G networks.
Another key end of proper health literacy, as the CDC’s definition implies, is social responsibility. Some individuals do not consider the consequences of acting outside of safety guidelines, such as wearing masks and refraining from large public gatherings. These ‘free-riders’ enjoy the safety of others’ caution, but put vulnerable groups at risk.
To worsen this, the media is prone to causing hysteria and fear, which fuels socially irresponsible behaviors like panic-buying and hoarding.
In referring to the virus, health illiteracy has also stirred up an old xenophobia against Asian Americans that spans back to the first immigrants. Inquiries Journal describes that it spreads through society in the vehicle of language: political leaders and popular media platforms have used terms like “China virus,” “Kung-flu,” and “Chinese coronavirus,” which propagate a racist, misleading perception of Asian Americans. CBS News reported on July 2, 2020 that there had been over 2,000 incidents of physical and verbal assault against Asians.
Health literacy during a pandemic even affects mental health. According to a recent study in Vietnam, health literacy was found to prevent depression and improve health-related quality of life, especially for those who are sick.
“Adequate health literacy enables health-friendly environments, efficient health policies implementation, effective health promotional efforts, better self-care, healthcare outcomes, and lower expenditures,” the study claimed.
The topic of health literacy is easily overlooked, but it is clear that the consequences are large in scope. It is crucial to consider the validity of all COVID-19 information, and to act with the well-being of not just oneself, but others in mind.
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