A Voice from the frontline: the role of risk communication in managing the COVID-19 Infodemic and engaging communities in pandemic response

The WHO has recently reorganized its functions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. My current role is to oversee the technical and scientific aspects of this response, including clinical management and other public health measures, as well as ‘infodemic’ [an excessive amount of information concerning a problem] management, which is related to both risk communication and community engagement. I have been working on infodemic management for a few years now. With every outbreak, we have a tsunami of information that is also accompanied by a lot of rumors, misinformation, and what people call ‘fake news’. While this cannot be completely stopped, we try to prevent and manage it appropriately.