The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned this Friday that the circulation of false information regarding health "can undermine trust in vaccines."
During his video intervention at the XXI National Congress of Health Informers, he emphasized that misinformation in this area can "divert people from the need to take care of themselves, generate stigma and discrimination, and erode trust in the institutions that protect and promote health."
The meeting, held in Madrid and organized by the National Association of Health Informers (ANIS) under the slogan "The integrity of health information, the great battle," served Ghebreyesus to emphasize that "trust is one of the most precious conditions of health."
"At a time when information travels faster than any virus, the integrity of health information has become one of the public challenges of our time," he noted, reminding that "nowadays, people have access to more health information than ever before." However, he warned that "they also have access to health misinformation."
Defense of Independent Health Journalism
In this context, he denounced "an inappropriate volume of misinformation," fueled by "manipulated content," and called for "strong, independent, and professional health journalism."
He highlighted that "every day, health journalists translate complex sciences into clear and relevant information" and "help people distinguish evidence from opinion, facts from rumors, and experts from speculation."
In this way, he emphasized that informative work provides citizens with the necessary context to "make informed decisions." In his view, "rigorous journalism remains one of the strongest defenses of society" against the current situation, in which "false information can circulate around the world in seconds," concluding that "the journalistic mission is a public health mission."