According to a recent WHO study, misinterpretations of health information, which increase during epidemics and disasters, often have a negative impact on people’s mental health, increase reluctance to get vaccinated, and can delay the provision of health care. The effects of certain drugs administered during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were hastily published and widely reported in the media, are now the subject of more comprehensive and objective studies, also known as refutatory studies (which refute previously published results), such as the 7 recent studies on ivermectin.

A  recent JRC (EU Joint Research Center) report analyses the most spread narratives, their consequences, factors predicting how likely people are to believe or share them, and the most efficient ways to counter disinformation. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) recently posted a presentation on its YouTube channel that discusses these phenomena and their impact on vaccination and treatment related to COVID-19. The responsibility of health professionals, scientific information and researchers to counter infodemia and misinformation in order to ensure quality scientific information is also discussed.

The BiUM also supports researchers in their literature searches, in particular for the realization of systematic reviews.