CanCOVID Webinar Summary
Detecting and Correcting Public Health Misinformation: Lessons Learned and Best Practices
The spread of misinformation and confusion about COVID‑19 throughout the pandemic has highlighted the need for clear, accurate, and accessible scientific information.
The presentations included in this summary explored community-based and culturally relevant approaches, democratic communications, meaning-making versus information transmission, and countering misinformation, disinformation, conspiratorial thinking, and online abuse. Included in the summary are best practices for correcting misinformation and highlights the relationship between misinformation and community infection, testing, tracing, vaccination, masking, and air quality mitigation. It also provides an emphasis on the importance of considering cultural relevance and citizen engagement, in addition to adopting new strategies and learning from other countries to provide the public with clear, relevant, communication.
Our thanks again to our moderator and speakers on the topic.
Moderator:
- Robert Steiner, MBA, Director, Dalla Lana Fellowship in Global Journalism, Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Speakers:
- Norma Rabbitskin, RN, Senior Health Nurse, Sturgeon Lake Health Centre
- Vivian R. Ramsden, RN, PhD, MCFP (Hon.), FCAHS, Professor, Director, Research Division, Department of Family Medicine, University of Saskatchewan
- Shirley Bighead, Director of Health, Sturgeon Lake Health Centre, Sturgeon Lake First Nation
- Robert Danisch, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication Arts, University of Waterloo
- Ashley Mehlenbacher, PhD, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Science, Health, and Technology Communication, University of Waterloo
- Heidi Tworek, PhD, Associate Professor, International History and Public Policy, University of British Columbia
- Gabby Stern, Director of Communications, Department of Communications, World Health Organization
