Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/lancet-commission-rethinking-misinforma...
Thank you Margaret for highlighting this new paper in The Lancet.
Below are the citation, extracts and a comment from me.
CITATION: Volume 407, Issue 10548p2587-2588 June 27, 2026
The Lancet Commission on rethinking misinformation, health, and human security
Heidi J Larson et al
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01128-1/fulltext
The UN and the World Economic Forum have identified misinformation and disinformation as top global risks—ranking them as higher short-term threats than extreme weather, state-based armed conflict, and cyber insecurity.1,2 Although many people might associate this phenomenon with the COVID-19 crisis, the pandemic only exacerbated a growing trend, which preceded COVID-19 and has evolved since. The already uncontrolled spread of misinformation through social media alongside rapidly changing artificial intelligence with the ability to create convincing mimics of real people and events, further complicates a high-risk misinformation landscape with implications for health outcomes and a protracted impact on trust in science.
In 2021, then US Surgeon General Vivek H Murthy issued a report that warned “Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people's health, and undermine public health efforts.” ...
A growing number of initiatives to counter misinformation — from fact checking to debunking — have been tried and tested, but the scope and scale of misinformation and disinformation and their risks to health and human security continue to grow...
New approaches are needed, with new thinking. This is not simply a matter of information versus misinformation or disinformation; it is far more complex than that...
It is time to systematically address misinformation and disinformation in a health context. A new Lancet Commission on rethinking misinformation, health, and human security will convene experts from risk science, security, the social and political sciences, mathematics and computer science, and health to rethink a systems approach to misinformation and disinformation threats to human health and security.
This Commission will analyse the ways in which misinformation and disinformation affect health. It will investigate the mechanisms and pathways through which misinformation interacts with factors such as trust and distrust, and how they disrupt research, undermine trust in science and health, and impact on health outcomes. We envision a more dynamic, responsive, and systemic response to protect health and health systems from the consequences of these new influences on health and human security, while leveraging the positive opportunities of new technologies. Health is a key aspect of the so-called information crisis; this Commission will provide clear information for decision makers, funders, and others who are engaged with one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.
COMMENT (NPW): Pitching this purely as a battle against misinformation is like leaning a ladder against the wrong wall. The central challenge is to build a world where every person has access to reliable information on health, and can differentiate such information from misinformation. There is no silver bullet (although some of us believe AI will be transformational): the surest way to meet this challenge is to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem.
www.hifa.org/about-hifa#ecosystem
HIFA has been doing this for 20 years by addressing three intrinsic weaknesses in the system: communication among stakeholders (HIFA forums), understanding of information needs and how to meet them (HIFA projects and spotlights) and political and financial commitment (HIFA advocacy programe). Our global consultation in 2023 called on WHO to champion universal access to reliable healthcare information and reiterated the importance of a systems approach. In 2024 WHO launched a new initiative - Global Coalition for Evidence - to 'strengthen the global evidence ecosystem to improve health and well-being throughout the world'. HIFA and the GCfE are the only initiatives (to my knowledge) that are centred on stregthening the global evidence ecosystem, and for the last 6 months we have been discussing opportunities for collaboration.
The greatest operational challenge is that we have minimal resource capacity. Both HIFA and WHO have only one professional staff each, and in WHO's case the lead person is also responsible for several other programmes. At the request of WHO, the HIFA-WHO Collaboration group is now working on a technical brief to help inform WHO's next steps. An explicit commitment to universal access to reliable healthcare inforamtion would be a gamechanger, opening the way for political and financial commitment to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org