How to check an outbreak claim before it becomes an infodemic
A practical verification method drawn from the context of the 2020 infodemic statement: trace the claim, preserve uncertainty and correct with care.
Begin with the exact claim
The September 2020 joint statement on the COVID-19 infodemic describes an information environment in which useful material and misleading claims can spread rapidly together. The practical problem for a reader is often smaller than the whole debate: a specific sentence, image or number has arrived without enough context to judge it.
Write down what that item actually claims before searching for support. Is it reporting a confirmed event, predicting an outcome, alleging a cause or recommending an action? These are different questions. A search for the broad topic may find relevant-looking pages without answering the particular claim that prompted concern.
Trace the evidence without upgrading it
Follow the item back to the original publication and check the date, population and observation period. Then compare the claim with what the source measured. A hospital study, for example, cannot automatically describe everyone in a country; a preliminary investigation is not a confirmed cause simply because the headline sounds certain.
Uncertainty should stay attached to the finding. Words such as suspected, estimated and preliminary are part of the evidence, not decorative caution. Removing them can change the substance of a message even when its numbers remain identical. A screenshot should therefore be checked against the full dated publication rather than circulated as a self-contained proof.
Make a correction useful to the next reader
A useful correction identifies the specific mismatch and supplies a clearer account. It can explain that a figure refers to an earlier year, a different population or a proposed outcome. Repeating the most alarming version of a claim without that explanation may leave the next reader remembering the claim more readily than the correction.
Save the original source with the explanation so that later revisions can be checked. If the evidence remains unresolved, describe the unresolved question rather than assigning certainty or intent. This approach turns the infodemic statement into a repeatable reading practice: define the claim, inspect the evidence and preserve the limits of what is known.
A three-pass check
| Pass | Question | Useful output |
|---|---|---|
| Claim | What exactly is being asserted? | One testable sentence |
| Evidence | What did the original source observe? | Date, population and method |
| Sharing | Does the message preserve the finding’s limits? | A faithful summary with a traceable source |
Source snapshot · feed date 23 September 2020
Managing the COVID-19 infodemic: Promoting healthy behaviours and mitigating the harm from misinformation and disinformation
The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the first pandemic in history in which technology and social media are being used on a massive scale to keep people safe, informed, productive and connected. At the same time, the technology we rely on to keep connected and informed is enabling and amplifying an infodemic that continues to undermine the global response and jeopardizes measures to control the pandemic.
COVID-19 — sources, context and outbreak reporting
Understand covid-19 through a concise source-checked overview, clear reporting context and direct links to official public-health information.
Read the disease guide →Sources & Verification
World Health Organization (WHO). RSS content used with permission. Formatting adapted for Worldwide Outbreak.
- Managing the COVID-19 infodemic: Promoting healthy behaviours and mitigating the harm from misinformation and disinformation Also cited as: WHO and partners — infodemic statement, September 2020 Verify original (opens in a new tab)
Feed retrieved 24 Oct 2026, 14:09 UTC. Story date follows the dated WHO article address; the feed timestamp is 23 Sep 2020.
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