The Infodemic

Infodemic. A word created to describe the influx of data and misleading information, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, that leads people to not know what is real and what is fake. The World Health Organization goes to describe the infodemic as something that "causes confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can harm health. It also leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines the public health response." I definitely saw this during the pandemic. So much contradictory information could be found, one saying COVID wasn't real and another saying to lock down immediately. This definitely created a lot of anxiety in myself during COVID-19 because there was constantly a new update, but you never truly knew if it was actually something to put any hope into or if it was simply someone stating their opinions and beliefs in the form of facts.