As early as February, with the global pandemic spreading fast, the World Health Organization issued a warning about an "infodemic" - a wave of fake news and misinformation about the deadly new disease.
Now with hopes hanging on Covid-19 vaccines, the WHO and experts are warning those same phenomena may jeopardize the roll-out of immunization programs meant to bring an end to the suffering.
"The coronavirus disease 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," the WHO says.
"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."
More than 1.4 million people have died since the pandemic began, but three developers are already applying for approval for their vaccines to be used as early as this month.
Beyond logistics, though, governments must also contend with skepticism over vaccines developed with record speed at a time social media has been both a tool for information and falsehood about the virus.
The WHO defines an infodemic as an overabundance of information, both online and offline, including "deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information."
A recent study by Cornell University in the United States found President Donald Trump, who mused on the possibility of using disinfectants inside the body to cure the virus and promoted unproven treatments, has been the world's biggest driver of Covid-19 misinformation.
"Without the appropriate trust and correct information, diagnostic tests go unused, immunization campaigns will not meet their targets and the virus will continue to thrive," the WHO says.
Three vaccine developers - Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford University are leading the pack - and some governments are planning to start vaccinating their most vulnerable this year.
But with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or WhatsApp acting as vectors for dubious facts and fake news, "disinformation has now reached an unparalleled scale," says Sylvain Delouvee, a researcher at Rennes-2 University.
Rory Smith of anti-disinformation website First Draft agrees.
"From an information perspective, coronavirus has not only underlined the sheer scale of misinformation worldwide but also the negative impact misinformation can have on trust in vaccines, institutions and scientific findings," he says.
Rachel O'Brien, head of the WHO's immunization department, says the agency is worried false information propagated by the so-called "anti-vaxxer" movement could dissuade people from getting immunized against Covid-19. The need is to make people aware "there is a lot information out there that is wrong, either intentionally wrong or unintentionally wrong."
Among the outlandish claims by conspiracy theorists, for example, is the idea the pandemic is a hoax or part of an elite plan to control populations.
And vaccination programs, some believe, are a shield for implanting microscopic chips in people to monitor them.
Such notions can find fertile ground at a time when polls show people in some countries, such as Sweden and France, are already skeptical about vaccines developed in record time with no long-term studies yet available on their efficacy and possible side-effects.
A poll by Ipsos in October suggested that only 54 percent of French people would get immunized against the coronavirus, 10 percentage points lower than in the United States, 22 lower than in Canada and 33 lower than in India.
But it is not just vaccines. More and more people express a growing mistrust of institutions.
"The common theme" among conspiracy theorists "is that our 'elites' are lying to us," says Delouvee.
Disinformation is based on growing mistrust of all institutional authority, whether governmental or scientific.
"When people can't easily access reliable information around vaccines misinformation narratives rush in to fill the vacuum," First Draft says.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
