infodemica

Infodemica is a term used in Spanish-language discourse to describe the flood of information that accompanies a health crisis, including both accurate content and misleading or false material. It aligns with the English term infodemic and is studied within the broader field of infodemiology, which examines how information about health spreads in online environments and how it influences public health outcomes.

The concept refers to the rapid generation, distribution, and consumption of information during epidemics or outbreaks. Infodemica encompasses misinformation (false or misleading content shared without malicious intent), disinformation (deliberately false content spread to mislead), rumors, and conflicting guidance. It results from a combination of vast information sources, algorithmic amplification on social media, cognitive biases, and varying levels of digital literacy among the public. The term emphasizes the information landscape as a factor that can affect health behaviors and risk perceptions, sometimes as much as the physical disease itself.

Impacts of infodemica include public confusion, erosion of trust in health authorities, delayed or inappropriate health decisions, and reduced adherence to recommended interventions. Conversely, well-communicated, transparent, and timely information can mitigate negative effects by providing clear guidance and correcting errors.

Mitigation strategies focus on proactive risk communication, rapid fact-checking and debunking, collaboration with credible experts, media literacy education, and platform-level measures to reduce the spread of harmful content while preserving access to reliable information. Infodemica remains a central consideration in managing public health responses to outbreaks and in shaping effective health communication tactics.