With every outbreak of an infectious disease, be it Ebola, COVID-19, HIV or any other, there comes with it a surge of new information from scientists about the disease itself and how to best control and treat it. Unfortunately, this new information is often accompanied by an array of misinformation and conspiracy, which has the potential to completely negate the efforts of scientists across the globe to ease the public health burden that the disease brings, if it is allowed to spread and enough people believe it. This can be seen in the current COVID-19 pandemic, where scientists have worked at mind-boggling speed and efficiency to understand the virus and find us a way out of the constant lockdowns and rising death tolls, in the form of the vaccines. The vaccines have been surrounded by a cloud of conspiracy, mistrust, and fear since the whispers of their creation began. This is mainly due to prominent members of the ‘anti-vaxx’ community preying upon peoples fears of the unknown in order to push their agenda, instead of putting their minds at ease with the truth and scientific fact. The parallel spread of information and misinformation has also been seen during the 2014 West Africa and 2018 Ebola outbreaks, and in this instance the misinformation ended up costing many lives, as it stopped some people seeking life-saving treatment for the fatal disease. If we are not careful, history could repeat itself and we could end up seeing countless unnecessary deaths due to low uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines.
There are clear parallels between the misinformation that circulated during the 2018 Ebola outbreak and the current COVID-19 pandemic. One example is the belief that the disease is not real. In a 2018 survey of residents in various regions of DR Congo, the epicentre of the 2018 outbreak, it was found that 25.5% of participants believed that the Ebola outbreak wasn’t real. The survey then found those who believed this misinformation also were much less likely to adopt preventative measures such as increased hand washing, sanitation and uptake of the vaccine. These people were also less likely to seek formal healthcare if they became sick with the virus, and these actions undoubtedly propagated the 2018 outbreak and did not help to contain the spread of the disease.
Another common belief that was found among residents of DR Congo during the survey was that “Ebola is fabricated for financial gains”. 32% of respondents believed this statement. Again, we see a mirror image of this misinformation during our ongoing pandemic, with a viral Facebook post claiming that Bill Gates is responsible for the emergence of COVID-19 and that he wants to ‘depopulate the planet and make money from vaccines’. There is absolutely no evidence that this statement is true, yet the baseless post has accumulated over 134,000 likes. As seen in the Ebola survey, belief in conspiracies like these are also associated with a decreased likelihood to be cautious about the disease and take steps to reduce disease transmission. In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 3 million people and disrupted the lives of everyone else, a repeat of the outcomes of Ebola misinformation is the last thing we need.
The purpose of this post is to highlight the dangers of misinformation, and how it has the potential to completely undermine everything that our healthcare workers, research scientists, local councils, communities and everyone else are doing to help keep themselves and others safe from disease.
Link to the DR Congo Study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(19)30063-5/fulltext
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