Immunizing the Public against Misinformation

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Proliferating misinformation — even when the content is, in a best-case scenario, harmless — can have serious and even social and lethal health ramifications in the context of a global pandemic. In some countries, rumours about impending food scarcity prompted people to stockpile supplies early on in the epidemic and caused actual shortages.

This article is an interview with Tim Nguyen whose team manages the Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN), which is leading WHO work on managing infodemics.

Source: Immunizing the Public against Misinformation

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    Advice on the Use of Masks for Children in the Community in the Context of COVID-19

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    This document provides guidance to decision makers, public and child health professionals to inform policy on the use of masks for children in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not address the use of masks for adults working with children or parents/guardians or the use of masks for children in health-care settings. This interim guidance will be revised and updated as new evidence emerges.

    This guidance provides specific considerations for the use of non-medical masks, also known as fabric masks, by children as a means for source control in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The document is an annex to the WHO’s Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-191 in which further details on fabric masks can be found. This annex also advises the use of medical masks for children under certain conditions. For the purposes of this guidance, children are defined as anyone below the age of 18 years.

    Source: Advice on the Use of Masks for Children in the Community in the Context of COVID-19

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      WHO Advice for Home-Based Care of COVID-19

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      This page includes guidance for the public on home-based care practices for those who have tested positive for COVID-19 or those who have come in contact with others who have tested positive. It was originally published in March 2020 and then updated in August 2020.  This is the latest version.

      The updates include:

      • Considerations regarding the IPC requirements for the household to be suitable for caring for COVID-19 patients in the home
      • Clinical monitoring and treatment of COVID-19 patients at home
      • Waste management in the home setting in the context of COVID-19
      • An appendix on the effective implementation of home-care policies

      Source: WHO Advice for Home-Based Care of COVID-19

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        Timeline: WHO’s COVID-19 Response

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        This timeline tells the story of WHO’s response to COVID-19, starting from the end of December 2019 to the present day.

        The timeline breaks information down into the following categories, and within these, by regions of the world:

        • All actions
        • Information
        • Science
        • Leadership
        • Advice
        • Response
        • Resourcing

        Source: Timeline: WHO’s COVID-19 Response

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          Tackling COVID-19 Fear and Stigma

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          In Burkina Faso, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a variety of reactions among some Ouagadougou residents that have complicated efforts for a timely response. Hesitancy to get tested, avoiding contact tracers, or wariness of what the neighbors will say are some of these reactions.

          The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the government to provide guidance to tackle stigma as well as support other aspects of the COVID-19 response, which is further explained in this article.

          Source: Tackling COVID-19 Fear and Stigma

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            A Guide to WHO’s Guidance on COVID-19

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            Since January 2020, WHO has published more than 100 documents about COVID-19. Of these, more than half are detailed technical guidance, on how to find and test cases, how to provide safe and appropriate care for people depending on the severity of their illness, how to trace and quarantine contacts, how to prevent transmission from one person to another, how to protect health care workers, and how to help communities to respond appropriately.

            This page offers a summary of some of the documents WHO has developed for COVID-19 and how they can be used.

            Source: A Guide to WHO’s Guidance on COVID-19

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              How to Greet Friends after Lockdown

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              These two COVID-19 safety posters were created to illustrate the do’s and don’ts of greeting friends after lockdown.

              The posters outline appropriate greetings, such as: waving, bowing, nodding and touching elbows. These greetings have little to no contact and therefore reduce each person’s risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.

              Source: How to Greet Friends after Lockdown

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                Smoking and COVID-19

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                This review assesses the available peer-reviewed literature on the association between smoking and COVID-19, including:

                1. Risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2
                2. Hospitalization with COVID-19
                3. Severity of COVID-19 outcomes amongst hospitalized patients such as admission into intensive care units (ICU), use of ventilators and death.

                Source: Smoking and COVID-19

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                  Ajustement à bases factuelles des mesures de santé publique et des mesures sociales

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                  Un rapport de lignes directrices provisoires pour les États membres de la région africaine de l’OMS concernant la santé publique et les mesures sociales pour prévenir la propagation des COVID-19.

                  Source: Ajustement à bases factuelles des mesures de santé publique et des mesures sociales

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                    How to Fight an Infodemic: The Four Pillars of Infodemic Management

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                    The World Health Organization (WHO) is presenting a framework for managing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infodemic. Infodemiology is now acknowledged by public health organizations and the WHO as an important emerging scientific field and critical area of practice during a pandemic.

                    From the perspective of being the first “infodemiolgist” who originally coined the term almost two decades ago, the author posts four pillars of infodemic management:

                    • Information monitoring (infoveillance)
                    • Building eHealth Literacy and science literacy capacity
                    • Encouraging knowledge refinement and quality improvement processes such as fact checking and peer-review
                    • Accurate and timely knowledge translation, minimizing distorting factors such as political or commercial influences

                    Source: How to Fight an Infodemic: The Four Pillars of Infodemic Management

                      Views 984