Background Infodemic management is an integral part of pandemic management. Ghana Health Services (GHS) together with the UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) Country Office have developed a systematic process that effectively identifies, analyzes, and responds to COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation in Ghana. Objective This paper describes an infodemic management system workflow based on digital data collection, qualitative methodology, and human-centered systems to support the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Ghana with examples of system implementation. Methods The infodemic management system was developed by the Health Promotion Division of the GHS and the UNICEF Country Office. It uses Talkwalker, a social listening software platform, to collect misinformation on the web. The methodology relies on qualitative data analysis and interpretation as well as knowledge cocreation to verify the findings. Results A multi-sectoral National Misinformation Task Force was established to implement and oversee the misinformation management system. Two members of the task force were responsible for carrying out the analysis. They used Talkwalker to find posts that include the keywords related to COVID-19 vaccine–related discussions. They then assessed the significance of the posts on the basis of the engagement rate and potential reach of the posts, negative sentiments, and contextual factors. The process continues by identifying misinformation within the posts, rating the risk of identified misinformation posts, and developing proposed responses to address them. The results of the analysis are shared weekly with the Misinformation Task Force for their review and verification to ensure that the risk assessment and responses are feasible, practical, and acceptable in the context of Ghana. Conclusions The paper describes an infodemic management system workflow in Ghana based on qualitative data synthesis that can be used to manage real-time infodemic responses.
BACKGROUND Infodemic management is an integral part of pandemic management. The Ghana Health Services (GHS) together with the UNICEF Country Office have developed a systematic process that effectively identifies, analyses, and responds to COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation in Ghana. OBJECTIVE This paper describes the infodemic management system in Ghana and explains how the system is implemented to support COVID-19 vaccine rollout programming in Ghana. METHODS The infodemic management system is based on collecting social media data through a digital platform (Talkwalker), analysis of the data, and review of the findings by experts, followed by verification of the findings and knowledge co-creation of appropriate infodemic responses through a multisectoral task force. The system is based on four steps: 1) social listening to identify misinformation, 2) risk assessment and proposal for appropriate responses by experts, 3) verification and knowledge co-creation of appropriate responses, and 4) implementation of infodemic responses. RESULTS Data was based on COVID-19 social media public posts and online resources identified by UNICEF Talkwalker in Ghana during the period of May-November 2021. The demographics of those whose posts on Talkwalker identified are 25-34 years old, 70% male and 30% female. The Talkwalker system detected different kinds of fake information including misinformation, disinformation and posts that could potentially reduce public trust towards the health systems and the COVID-19 vaccination program. CONCLUSIONS The Ghanaian infodemic management system is a functional and sustained system that is able to develop culturally appropriate infodemic responses that can be replicated in other countries in the world. CLINICALTRIAL NA
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