The year 2020 has been an extremely tough year. The enormity of the COVID-19 pandemic has halted life as we knew it and has killed more than 1 million people. As we near the end of this year, we brought together six big thinkers from across the globe at the Misinformation in Medicine Summit to discuss the learnings from COVID-19, the challenges of health misinformation, and the road ahead in 2021.

The Misinformation in Medicine Summit 2020 brought together six big thinkers from across the globe to discuss the fundamental learnings from COVID-19. Moderated by Sun Pharma’s Senior Advisor for Global Health & Innovation, Dr. Altaf Lal, the panel brought together speakers with decades of experience in biomedical sciences, health sciences, and public health – at the program, the policy as well as operational research levels. Setting the stage by drawing parallels between the COVID-19 and the 1918 pandemics, Dr. Lal highlighted the issues of misinformation and misconnected information prevalent in the global political and public ecosystem.

The (mis)information ecosystem

“The flurry of information that has come our way has bamboozled, confused, and uprooted our professionals. People who ought to be more rooted in science and credible information did get swayed,” said Dr. Faisal Sultan, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan’s Special Assistant on Health and a panelist at this session.

Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India, echoed the same sentiments as Dr. Faisal. He agreed, saying that misinformation does not happen by chance.

“Misinformation happens by the systematic design of several vested interests who set the thing in motion and derive benefit from it,” said Dr. Reddy.

He further added, “The powers that be, are also playing to this. Politicians would like to get on with their political activities, rallies, elections. The call for ‘getting the economy back on rails’ is an indication of corporate interests pushing politicians.”

Misleading, misconnected, and misinformed actions, political and otherwise, have led to thousands of infections and the loss of hundreds of lives to COVID-19. A study by Stanford University estimated that the crowds at 19 rallies by President Trump contributed to over 30,000 cases and 700 deaths. Heads of states of the world’s leading democracies have misled people through half-truths and even lies.

Underlining the need for effective leadership, Dr. Lal added, “The leaders need to be served by the appropriate people. A radiologist cannot overnight become an infectious disease expert and advise public health policy.”

The implications of miscommunication were catastrophic even during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Back then, when the message was to refrain from touching the dead body, sacred rituals for the deceased were performed, and often the same water was used by people to wash hands.

“Messages were miscommunicated, and in that process, some 11,000 perished,” said Dr. Sarthak Das, CEO of Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance while sharing his first-hand experience of handling the crisis.

“One of the most critical things that we as public health experts can do is to establish credibility early on. Part of this is to come out and set on record what we don’t know. This is crucial.”

A pandemic in the face of residual pandemics

The pandemic’s havoc has regressed the world by every indicator. Nearly 40 million people have been thrown back into extreme poverty. ‘Residual pandemics’ still infect and kill millions. Malaria diagnostics and treatment have been disrupted as immunization and elimination goals suffer massive blows. “We could lose decades of progress in ten months,” said Simon Bland, CEO of Abu-Dhabi based Global Institute of Disease Elimination.

Even data on malaria narrates a similar story. “It’s too early to say, and make blanket statements,” added Dr. Das. “But it is, however, safe to say that there are major risks associated with both elimination of malaria and its control.”

Reliable data, even in normal times, is crucial for informed policy decisions. “Having access to data can save lives,” asserted Martina Kaiser, Policy Advisor (Global Health) at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Germany.

The UN has pointed out serious data gaps – an issue aggravated by the pandemic, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Progress made towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has turned back by years. The central message in this year’s SDG report, as pointed out by Kaiser is that there’s no area that has been spared by COVID-19 and that the pandemic hurts the poorest and the marginalised, the most.

“COVID-19 is leaving more behind, every single day. It is causing more neglect, not less,” added Bland.

What have we learned?

If we draw parallels between the pandemic of 1918 and COVID-19, nothing much seems to have changed. Almost a century back we were fighting misinformation, as we are now. The use of masks then, as now, was urged by authorities. Then, as now, it stoked political divisions and was resisted by a group of people. To a great extent, history seems to repeat itself.

“We were not ready, despite decades of warnings. It was not a question of if, but when. I don’t think that we should take for granted that what’s happening now will be an effective wake-up call for the future. There’s a lot of work still to be done in terms of learning – what now and what next,” said Bland.

A very strong social movement is needed to counter the number of vested interests who have a stake in perpetuating misinformation for gains. Policy-making should be driven by robust science. “Ultimately, what we need is ‘people-partnered public health’ to contain and combat misinformation of this kind,” said Dr. Reddy.

Dr. Das too emphasised on the importance of building a strong culture of communication for public health programs to be delivered effectively and efficiently. “Whether it’s malaria, or COVID-19, or tuberculosis as it continues to be the case, it is the district health managers responsible for delivering the programs to the poor. Public health professionals at these levels need to be equipped with not just management skills but communication skills, along with the ability to use data effectively.”

The United States pulled out of the World Health Organization in the middle of the pandemic – at a time when global support was needed most. The panel held the unanimous opinion that one of the first decisions of President-elect Joe Biden should be on the US’ commitment to rejoin WHO. “A country at the helm of the scientific world ought to be at the helm of WHO as well. To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said Dr. Sultan. There are, however, lessons that should be learned. “We have to do a better job of proving why multilateral cooperation is the right approach. WHO is not perfect, it will need reform,” added Simon Bland. Pointing out the need for a change in US’ behaviour, Dr. Reddy said, “In the process of re-entry, the US must also recognise that it should be respectful of the concerns and priorities of other countries.”

“It fundamentally is about people’s willingness to think in a collective way – commitment and willingness to care for each other and be willing to make necessary sacrifices,” Dr. Das’ pertinent words marked the conclusion of 75 minutes of powerful conversation.

You can watch the recording of the session here.