On April 29th, 2026, within the World Health Organisation’s 2-day online event “Rebooting Health Promotion- Marking 40 years of the Ottawa Charter in the WHO European Region”. The European Digital Media Observatory co-organised an interactive panel discussion, with Paula Gori as the speaker, on the mis- and disinformation ecosystem on health, together with the Division of Prevention and Health Promotion and the Health Security Division.

Moderated by Aleksandra Olsen, from the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the focus of the panel “Evidence vs clicks: communication in a world of mis and disinformation” was to discuss how public health messages compete with misinformation in the attention economy. This entails the diffusion of clickbait-like messages and the manipulation of emotions to maximize engagement, virality and monetization, over evidence and the promotion of health.

The interactive session with more than 50 participants helped identify practical ways to rebuild trust by prioritizing community needs and resilience, strengthen media literacy skills within the public, and adapt health promotion to current-day digital realities.

Paula Gori, EDMO Secretary-General, opened the debate by outlining the challenges faced today, in an ever-growing communication environment. She reinforced the importance of protecting the most vulnerable population affected by information overload or information voids. This vulnerability, found in the population, is defined by how disinformation operates in the digital sphere, exploiting emotions, especially negative ones, reshaping what is called the “delegation of knowledge pack”. This entails instances when individuals stop trusting institutions and science andstart getting information from other sources that appear to be credible in an ecosystem filled with noise.

Following was Olha Izhyk of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, who brought to light another source of the problem. She underscored the significance of shifting the root cause of health disinformation from a communication issue to a public health dilemma, while accounting for vulnerable populations. Recounting instances during COVID, Izhyk explained the correlation between countries with high trust in science and government, and better health outcomes. In this sense, trust building is a task to be done alongside communities; it requires officials and institutions to earn the respect of people on the ground by listening to them and becoming a trusted partner, in order to build a more resilient society regarding misinformation and a healthier information environment.

Sian Crucefix, from the medical journal ‘The Lancet’, reiterated the view that science communication facilitates confronting misinformation. Another shift in the structure is the current emphasis on the messenger – that is, who and which source – as well as the message. She stated that communicators need to navigate and put context to science communication, to bridge the gap between scientific experts, policy makers, and the public. The system’s dynamic nature requires individuals to adapt to it as it currently exists. This means identifying community needs and involving trusted voices, without a top-down approach.

With the growing passivity of online behaviour, communicators must make certain that reliable information reaches the public. Olha further stressed the need to bring content to where the public really is, such as TikTok, rather than expecting them to go find it.