Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40985351›Full record

ReviewGlobal health action2025

Public health disinformation, conflict, and disease outbreaks: a global narrative integrative review to guide new directions for health diplomacy.

Laura E R Peters, Gina E C Charnley, Stephen Roberts, Ilan Kelman

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Global health action, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Laura E R PetersDepartment of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-6691-0830
Gina E C CharnleyGlobal Health Resilience Group, Earth Sciences, Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centre Nacional de Supercomputació, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-2087-7822
Stephen RobertsInstitute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-6628-6780
Ilan KelmanDepartment of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-4191-6969

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the unpreparedness of global and public health systems to respond to large-scale health crises, while simultaneously revealing the entangled nature of disinformation and poor global and public health outcomes. This research challenges the common treatment of public health disinformation - deliberately false information - as an emergent and technical threat, and instead situates it as a more systemic and nuanced challenge for global health governance to address. This article presents an integrative narrative literature review on the interlinkages between public health disinformation, conflict, and disease outbreaks, demonstrating mutually influencing connections between them. In doing so, the analysis raises critical questions around how reactive responses, such as doubling down on information authority, can paradoxically fuel the uptake of both disinformation especially amidst global trends towards increasing conflict and decreasing cooperation. In this evolving sociopolitical landscape for global health, the discussion explores the potential to harness health diplomacy to strengthen critical public engagement and deliberation. This reimagined approach to health diplomacy offers pathways to mitigate the harmful effects of disinformation rather than seeking to eliminate false information. This article contributes to deepening an understanding of this rapidly expanding topic for global and public health in two pathways. First, by investigating the root causes and impacts of public health disinformation that intersect with conflict. Second, by exploring how health diplomacy can foster cooperative global health governance through transparency and inclusion. This research offers a new direction to strengthen preparedness for future global and public health crises amidst disinformation.

Indexed as

COVID-19DiplomacyDisease OutbreaksGlobal HealthPublic HealthHumansInternational CooperationPandemicsSARS-CoV-2disinformationhealth conflicthealth diplomacymisinformationpublic health information

Identifiers

PMID40985351
PMCPMC12459167

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.