Information and communication during the early months of COVID-19: Infodemics, misinformation, and the role of information professionals

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced challenges throughout the world and is endangering people’s prosperity. To these health, economic, political, and social challenges have been added those related to the management and dissemination of information, mainly concerning its exponential growth, veracity, and dissemination. Providing objective evidence-based information contributes to meeting these challenges. Social media and social networks are playing a key role in informing society about the evolution of the pandemic and progress towards its eradication. However, social networks are also a vehicle for the transmission of biased or false news that can endanger people’s health. Information professionals play a key role in correcting misinformation if they are able to filter out untruthful information and make resources with proven quality available to the population. In addition, they must manage scientific information about the pandemic, which is advancing at an accelerated pace. Currently, China is the leader while Spain is in fifth place in the development of research projects and scientific publications. The scientific research focuses on epidemiological aspects, respiratory diseases, drug treatments, and diagnostic tests. Many journals, databases, repositories, and other information systems have made their publications and other information resources available in record time to encourage the progress of such research.