Key Take-Aways from the EDMO Training Series on Health Disinformation
The EDMO Training Series on Health Disinformation was the first of a number of training packages related to disinformation on specific topics. In two modules, the series outlined how health disinformation has often been linked to Covid-19 but goes far beyond and intertwines with further topics and domains, requiring specific approaches. The first module brought in experts working in the disinformation field, while the second module was delivered by trainers from the field of public health.
On 13 February 2025, the first module of the Training Series, focused on Understanding and addressing health disinformation, brought together three experts currently working on health-related disinformation. Watch the recording ❯
The first trainer, Ravi Sreenath, built on the experience acquired in Ripple Research to analyse health disinformation’s complexity, due to factors such as its multiplicity, forms of manifestation, and its linkages to other sectors. Health disinformation spans beyond Covid-19 and vaccines, targeting broader common topics including veganism and plant-based diets, sunscreen, fluoride, and birth control.
Examples were provided of health disinformation using various tactics such as fearmongering, appeals to authority, creating doubt and distrust through oversimplification or conspiracy theories. Regarding its manifestation, disinformation manipulates public attitudes by exploiting behavioral and cultural factors, as seen in tobacco marketing and dietary choices linked to masculinity, patriotism, tradition or liberty. Misleading figures (e.g., “Dr.” prefixes) and emotional appeals are often used to legitimise false claims.
Additionally, Sreenath emphasised how health disinformation’s impact is intertwined with political ideologies, economic interests, and social dynamics. Most notably, the trainer mentioned the phenomenon of “health washing” animal products, namely exaggerating their benefits while dismissing alternatives as harmful, as well as the label “soy boy”, which in 2024 was strategically used to manipulate public opinion and obstruct progress on key issues like climate action, progressive policies, and healthy diets.
On a different note, Sara Beatriz Monteiro presented the approach adopted by Viral Check, the first Portuguese fact-checking newspaper exclusively dedicated to health and wellness. Viral Check relies on a number of “ingredients” to combat disinformation. Empathy and non-ostracizing communication are encouraged to help them see things from the reader’s perspective.Clear and understandable – albeit scientifically rigorous – language is used, with an informative and educational tone, rather than judgmental and patronising.
Overall, the newspaper aims to encourage the reader’s autonomy. Therefore, transparency is ensured concerning the fact-checking process, and readers are informed about potential risks, good practices, and about how the scientific method works. Viral Check also ensures diversity of formats and distribution channels, to be present in the same places where disinformation is disseminated and encourages training sessions and workshops on media literacy and fact-checking. Finally, Sara Beatriz Monteiro underlined the importance, for disinformation experts, of questioning one’s own work and personal biases.
The importance of empowering the users was also emphasized by the third trainer, Keith Kiely, from BROD. Kiely presented their work on misinformation in health-related domains and its risks for public health, through a case-study on statins. The study uses an innovative, enactive theory-based approach due to the failure of traditional approaches in addressing cognitive and emotional factors driving belief in misinformation.
The purpose of the study is, firstly, to improve, through educational intervention, the ability to identify logical fallacies and, secondly, to assess how context affects this ability. The study takes three starting contextual factors into consideration, such as healthcare, neutral contextual factors, and political factors. The consequent envisioned step would be to write a case study based on statins and misinformation. Online sources show that statins are represented in the online environment as dangerous or having negative side effects for people who take them.
The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a plugin into a browser which can read a webpage and identify within that text any examples of what it sees as a logical fallacy. This would give users a sense of agency, by empowering individuals to navigate the digital information landscape critically and resist misleading narratives.
The trainers for the second module of the Series, on Public health 101 for disinformation experts, were Tina Purnat, from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Elisabeth Wilhelm, School of Health and Care Sciences of the University of West Attica. Watch the recording ❯
#1: The reason why health disinformation is successfully hijacking narratives is because it hooks on people’s identity, values and previous experiences. A person’s values can shape and predict the type of narratives that they perpetuate or resist. Additionally, misinformation and emotionally compelling information and narratives spread more quickly than credible information provided by authorities. Moreover, health disinformation uses “zombie narratives”, namely pre-existing hooks that make disinformation persistent and easy to reignite.
#2: Effectively addressing drivers of mis- and disinformation over time is key to promoting long-term resilience. Among the motivations that contribute to the spread of disinformation, the trainers mentioned profit, a combination of profit and influence and/or power of over the health agenda, and political distrust and influence. It was underlined that building and reinforcing trust is crucial for resilience against disinformation. When trust in a government’s expertise is lost, people seek expertise elsewhere, often redefining it through the lens of disinformation.
#3 Health disinformation is harmful because it goes beyond influencing opinions – it negatively affects behavior, which can have population-level impacts if left unaddressed. Health disinformation influences individual decisions which eventually have a collective impact, and can cause physical, social, economic, political and psychological harms. When health misinformation becomes disinformation, narratives shift and are hijacked, and become a wider problem. While health authorities have the tools to respond effectively to doubts, concerns and questions on information before it becomes misinformation, the passage from misinformation to disinformation is a domain that other organizations are better placed to address.
#4 No one strategy or organization can alone address a complex issue like health disinformation over time. Partnerships are critical to building more effective health disinformation mitigation strategies and build population and systems resilience.
The trainers concluded the session by providing a set of key actions targeting strategic communications experts as well as key actions for public health experts to strengthen their response to health disinformation, with an emphasis again on partnerships between sectors as well as on media literacy and training.