Surgeon General Requests Input on Health Misinformation

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has announced a request for information (RFI) on the impact and prevalence of health misinformation in the digital information environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgeon General Murthy seeks to understand the impact of COVID-19 misinformation on public health and the health care infrastructure during the pandemic, including quality of care, health decisions and outcomes, direct and indirect costs, trust in the health care system and providers, and health care worker morale and safety.

The overarching goal of the RFI is to understand how the exposure to misinformation played a role in the societal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and any implications for future public health emergencies. The RFI seeks to understand how the public can access trusted and credible health information during a public health emergency, and how that could impact an individual’s decision to receive a vaccination or other life-saving health decisions.

Additional information is available here. Comments may be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal, available here.