Experts are sounding the alarm on the dangers of health misinformation, urging legal action to protect public health.
They said spreading false information can have severe consequences on the people.
Coordinator of Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, AIRA, Elodie Ho, made the disclosure on Tuesday during a webinar organised by Nigeria Health Watch, titled “Evidence-Based Frameworks for Networked Infodemic Management.”
He called for disciplinary action against those promoting and spreading misinformation and disinformation in public health.
Ho warned that lack of accountability enabled the continued spread of harmful narratives, which severely affected public health efforts.
According to Ho, both forms of information have significantly undermined public health response around the world and the absence of penalties for disinformation allows it to flourish.
“We are left trying to undo damages that could have been prevented.”
According to Ho, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have struggled to manage the rapid spread of false health information, particularly on social media platforms.
She explained that misinformation had contributed to vaccine hesitancy, distrust in public health institutions and confusion over treatment protocols—factors that had severely hampered disease control efforts.
To address these challenges, Ho said AIRA had adopted a four-pillar strategy: identify, simplify, amplify and quantify, to help countries track, analyse and respond to misleading narratives in real time.
She emphasised that effective frameworks must be practical, adaptable and implemented across sectors.
In her opening remarks, the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Mrs Vivianne Ihekweazu, noted that trust is the bedrock of effective health communication and it is easily eroded by falsehoods.
“As the World Health Organisation, WHO, has reminded us, trust is everything. Once lost, it is incredibly difficult to rebuild,” she said.
She added that the public is overwhelmed and unsure of where to find credible health information and is seeking honest and empathetic voices to guide them.
Ihekweazu stressed the need for evidence-based frameworks that are scalable, adaptable and rooted in community realities, noting that infodemic management must be an ongoing and networked process, not a one-off campaign.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of Resilience Action Network Africa, RANA, Mr Aggrey Aluso, said the world learnt from COVID-19 that having facts alone is not enough.
“Truth without structure can be drowned out. In the age of viral lies, coordination is not optional; it is our only difference,” Aluso said.
He called for proactive communication strategies, narrative laboratories and pre-bunking efforts to build resilience against false narratives.
