Fake news in health - Priority health

2024-03-19 10:05:02

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, social networks have become a sounding board for false medical information. On the front line to explain and inform during this period, doctors suffered insults, intimidation and threats. A worrying situation which pushed doctors, researchers and medical learned societies to publish, at the end of January 2024, an article in the journal L’Expressto put an end to the unpunished spread of false medical information.

How can we deconstruct the false information circulating regarding health? © Getty Images/iStockphoto – simplehappyart

How to effectively combat fake news in health ? How does false medical information alter the patient-doctor relationship? And, what does the Covid-19 pandemic teach us about information in times of crisis?

Dr Laurent Chouchana, hospital practitioner, deputy head of the Regional Pharmacovigilance Center Cochin APHP Hospital in Paris Pr Gilles Pialouxhead of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department at Tenon APHP Hospital in Paris, professor at Sorbonne Universitymedical journalist, editor-in-chief of vih.org and author of the book An almost perfect giftpublished by Mialet Barrault Dr Nicolas Winter, hospital practitioner in the pediatric emergency department of Valenciennes Hospital Center in France and author of the book Does the magic kiss exist? A guide to sorting fact from fiction in pediatrics, published by First. On social networks, he runs the page To be or not toubib dedicated to pediatric education Dr Hemes Promiseepidemiologist in Yaoundé, Cameroon, fact-checker specializing in health and president of Youth For Health and Development of Africa (YOHEDA), a Cameroonian NGO whose missions are the improvement of health and the protection of the environment.