It was standing room only as APHA 2024 Annual Meeting attendees packed into a room to learn how to become trustworthy public health communicators.

Elizabeth Wenk, who moderated the “Messaging and Explaining Public Health in a Climate of Misinformation and Disinformation” session, began by explaining the difference between misinformation and disinformation. Disinformation is false information that is spread with the intent to cause harm, whereas misinformation is when someone shares incorrect information and does not know it. 

Although they are not one and the same, Wenk said the two can have similar outcomes and contribute to the “pollution” of the discussions around science and public health. Other “pollutants” Wenk identified include political polarization, erosion of local news, social media, reliable information being behind paywalls, and algorithms that funnel information to people based on their interests.

“We talk often about young people being ambassadors for public health, but we also need them to be news ambassadors. It’s up to us to show them where to get news and build trust,” she said.

Hilary Godwin, dean and professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health, showed a slide featuring a photo of the university’s rowing team. Godwin said she thinks of communication — particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — like rowing, where things work best when everyone is in sync. 

However, Godwin said there are times when it’s better for public health messengers to not be in sync, because not everyone has the same lived experiences and a range of voices can help foster a robust, democratic discussion. 

“What do people who promote disinformation want? Their goal is to distract us and create dissent, but stay focused on your team, who is rowing with you, and the objective of the race you’re in,” she said.

Making the social connection

According to Ashish Joshi, dean and professor at the University of Memphis School of Public Health, public health professionals can’t stop misinformation and disinformation from being created and disseminated. What they can do, he said, is strengthen positive, evidence-based messaging. 

Joshi said that although we call many apps “social” media, the digital connections there are superficial. Many people get their news from social media, but these sites tend to create an echo chamber of opinions.

“We need to make that face-to-face human connection,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s ‘We, the people’ who disagree with each other.”

Thomas LaVeist, dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health, acknowledged the horrors of the early months and years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when public health was “learning about this virus in real time.”

One of the things LaVeist worked on with Tulane students was a project mapping where deaths from COVID-19 occurred versus where the drive-up testing sites were located. Deaths were taking place in communities of color and low-income communities, which were often far from testing sites, so LaVeist’s group “brought the testing to the people who needed it.”

They created social media campaigns and YouTube videos that focused on COVID-19 and the Black communities in Louisiana, where the deaths were, according to LaVeist. 

One area of the COVID-19 response that LaVeist says could have been much better was the terminology and messaging used. He said terms such as “Operation Warp Speed,” and “breakthrough infections” were confusing to people and made it seem like the vaccine was rushed and ineffective. 

“‘Social distancing’ — who thought of that? Those two words should never be in the same sentence together. What we meant was ‘physical distancing,’” he said.
Rebuilding trust

Erin O’Malley, executive director of the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science, said the organization she works for was founded in 2023 after the pandemic underscored the lack of trust from the public. The organization’s goal is to empower health and science professionals to act and communicate in a way that is trustworthy.

O’Malley said that approach also requires ensuring individuals are equipped to understand and recognize disinformation and misinformation.

“If you see something online and something about it seems funny, get a little curious. Be a little bit skeptical,” she said.