Coronavirus Australia: ‘Infodemic’ will ensure we’re locked down longer

If you’re surprised by the group of people protesting on the weekend, who so obviously have given themselves over to discredited conspiracy theories, then you have not been paying attention. While Australia’s present challenge is to ramp up supply to meet the overwhelming demand for vaccines, the protests highlight that the most important public health issue for us to confront is the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

Globally, lockdowns have protected millions of elderly Australians and vulnerable people. For most Australians, the arrival of safe and effective vaccines has sparked hope even while we continue to endure these lockdowns. The race to design, test and administer vaccines is viewed as an unprecedented medical triumph. For the younger, all of this will eventually be the ticket to a normal life of festivals, bars, stadiums and travel.

But the many people at the protests on the weekend who have become gripped with conspiracy theories about measures that would end this lockdown and eventually this pandemic raise a formidable wall of resistance — termed by the World Health Organisation as the “infodemic” — that poses the biggest challenge to our return to normal.

A protester is arrested during the weekend’s lockdown rally in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

We can see the enormity of the problem reflected in the faces of the chief medical officers and public health experts as they provide the public more facts in the hope it will inoculate the risks of misinformation and disinformation. As we have seen, though, this is unlikely to be effective because it isn’t that the public lack facts; it is that some people simply don’t believe what they see and hear.

This problem stems from the long-term decline in public faith and trust in our traditional institutions reflected not only in Australia but in many other Western countries. Prior to the pandemic, the Australian public’s trust in government was at record lows according to the 2019 Australian Election Study. At this time Australia was also seeing a rise in the anti-vaccine movement whose conspiratorial views about science and medicine had grown increasingly close to theories about dark agendas being pushed by those apparently motivated by profit and power.

The Covid-19 pandemic created a perfect storm for this problem to grow deeper roots. The pandemic has demanded much of many government institutions that for 18 months have provided large volumes of information every day that demands a significant effort to navigate. Fear has also stemmed from health and economic uncertainty as people navigate periods without their jobs, businesses and the usual comforts of everyday life. Lockdowns have also created perfect conditions for paranoia, with people searching for answers on social media platforms that often harbour misinformation and disinformation. It is understandable that through all this some people have been taken to a dark place.

The federal and state governments have put in place measures to counteract the infodemic by providing facts and tools for people to check the accuracy of information they read on social media and other platforms. Even so, this battle will not be won by the government institutions redoubling their administration of the truth because it perpetuates the confusion and frustration that some people already feel towards government institutions and the situation they are currently in.

Presently, the bulk of information is disseminated to the public via social media, and during this pandemic social media companies have played a crucial role in pushing disinformation from their platforms and providing health information to tackle misinformation. Those attempts have not been the silver bullet we needed, though. A 2020 study on the Zika virus showed that measures to remove misinformation did not reduce misconceptions about the virus but reduced people’s confidence in the accuracy of the information being disseminated. For those who spread disinformation, recent research from the MIT Centre for Civic Media has shown it results in people believing they’re being censored and persecuted, with the result that their views often become further entrenched out of feelings of martyrdom.

The reality is that this fight against the infodemic comes down to taking personal responsibility. For most Australians grounded in reality it is time to make more noise about the facts because the time when we can all go back to work, enjoy a night out, and be confident no one is going to get sick will require persuading people we know to adhere to lockdown measures, overcome their fears of vaccination and take the jab for the team. Because for however long there are people who abstain from compliance with the measures designed to fight Covid-19, the virus will pose a grave and ongoing threat to our way of life.

Jane Buncle is a barrister and a member of the NSW Liberal Party in Warringah.