ecades after doctors stopped making house calls, he was carrying his work out door-to-door. Instead of carrying the classic black physicians’ bag, he donned rubber boots. Acting as part of an outreach drive sponsored by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), former Ivorian refugee Jocelyn Konet was one of 52 healthcare workers sent to respond to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Konet, however, was not just sent to fight a deadly virus. He had also been sent to face a more ubiquitous foe: fake news.
Disinformation was a large problem in the refugee communities which fought against Ebola. Healthcare workers such as Konet had to establish themselves as trusted sources of information in order to halt the spread of the 2014 outbreak. People had heard rumors that the hospital was the source of Ebola. As a result, at the beginning of the outbreak, people slammed the door in Konet’s face when he tried to spread tips about how to contain the deadly disease.
Disinformation has always accompanied infectious outbreaks. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, misinformation in American newspapers and government censors helped spread the virus. The American AIDS epidemic was accompanied by a Soviet disinformation campaign which claimed that the virus was the result of American experimentation with biological weapons. And today, in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, social media rumors have run rampant, attributing the respiratory infection to a Chinese bioweapon and claiming it can be cured with garlic.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, refugee communities might be particularly vulnerable to disinformation. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, refugee communities were kept in the dark with little access to accurate information. In many of these communities, people do not trust the government or may even be in conflict with the government. David Miliband, the CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), notes that in these areas, humanitarian aid organizations like the IRC can be instrumental in stopping the spread of false information. As part of their preparation for the fight against coronavirus, IRC staff is hoping to establish trust in order to spread accurate information about the coronavirus in communities which are often in conflict with governments they do not trust.
Fake news fears aside, refugees may already be more vulnerable to certain pandemic illnesses than other groups. With the highly contagious coronavirus in particular, the refugee population faces unique risks. Crowded refugee camps cannot comply with the social distancing requirements that have been implemented as part of many countries’ COVID-19 defense plans. A lack of running water might make it impossible to wash hands several times a day. And even as the current number of forcibly displaced persons worldwide reaches a record high 70.8 billion, most countries pandemic response plans do not explicitly recognize refugee needs.
Further, even though refugee camps have experienced outbreaks of other more deadly diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola, COVID-19 poses unique risks to refugees living in cramped camp quarters with little access to healthcare. COVID-19 is more contagious than Ebola. Experts use a disease’s R0 (pronounced “R-naught”) to determine how infectious a disease is. The R0 value indicates the average number of people from a group with no immunity who one sick person can infect with a certain disease. The common flu has an average R0 of 1.3. Ebola’s R0 ranges from 1.6-2.0, depending on the population which hosts it. Covid-19’s R0 ranges from 2.0-2.5 and could potentially be higher in refugee populations which are not adequately prepared to halt its transmission.
COVID-19’s resilience in human populations also sets it apart from other, more fatal respiratory infections. Even though SARS exhibited an R0 which ranged between 2-4 and a mortality rate of 15%, it lacked the resilience needed to stay in human populations. Additionally, since the symptoms associated with SARS were more severe than those associated with Covid-19, it was easier to identify patients and contain the virus. In contrast, the symptoms associated with Covid-19 (fever and dry cough) are initially mild and can easily be mistaken for those belonging to a less dangerous respiratory illness, like influenza.
Additionally, high population density in refugee camps could contribute to coronavirus dangers. New York City, one of the American hotspots for coronavirus, is home to 10,000 people per square kilometer across its five boroughs. In certain refugee camps in Bangladesh, population density ranges between 40,000 and 70,000 people per square mile. In addition to the novel coronavirus’s resilience in human populations, as well as its relatively high R0 value, the high population density within refugee campus make the disease a potentially deadly threat.
Faced with other deadlier fears as a result of the novel coronavirus, vulnerable refugee camps experience an additional threat as a result of misinformation that has been spread about the virus. In Bangladeshi camps where the government has limited internet access for Rohingya refugees, people have been told to consume pennywort to protect themselves. Other rumors insist that prayer and exposure to heat can ward off the coronavirus.
The humanitarian response to coronavirus in refugee camps has been shaped by the explosion of misinformation, which always accompanies infectious outbreaks. For the IRC, the first step in its coronavirus response plan is not sanitation stations or fever testing, but rather fighting disinformation. David Miliband notes that Ebola taught the IRC the importance of establishing trust within the communities where it works. He argues that health facilities become overwhelmed when communities don’t believe healthcare messaging about how to stay well. When people know how to stay well, they can avoid contracting infectious diseases like coronavirus, improving healthcare workers’ ability to respond to the people who need medical attention the most.
Experience with Ebola has also shaped the fight against misinformation for other humanitarian organizations working to stop the coronavirus spread in refugee communities. During the 2014 Ebola epidemic, UNHCR healthcare worker Jocelyn Konet went door-to-door in Liberian refugee camps to share practical information about how to stay safe during the pandemic, dispelling rumors that the virus was in water or being spread by health clinics. In refugee camps across the African continent, lessons learned in Liberia are helping those trying to stop the coronavirus from coming to Tanzania. After responding to the Liberian Ebola outbreak in 2014, healthcare worker Miata Tubee Johnson is using her experience to guide her response to Covid-19. “My experience in Liberia actually prepared me for where I am today,” Johnson told UNHCR News. “I feel a sense of déjà vu.”
Large refugee aid organizations like the UNHCR aren’t the only ones working to combat the spread of disinformation about the coronavirus. In early April, The Atlantic spoke with a man named Robbi who was going “block to block, door to door, and shack to shack” across his refugee camp in Bangladesh to transmit accurate information about coronavirus. Robbi, a Rohingya refugee, had been working for weeks to spread the word about coronavirus to families in the camp. Robbi’s work isn’t sanctioned by an international organization, and he’s been assisted by only a handful of others. He has been working to educate his community despite the communication restrictions inflected on Rohingya refugee camps by the Bangladeshi government. He uses a megaphone to make announcements about hygiene and social distancing measures as he hands out masks, soap, and gloves to people living in the camp.
Just as it has with every other large-scale infectious outbreak, disinformation will continue to spread as the coronavirus infects multiple areas of the globe. Refugee camps, often in areas where there is already little government trust and rampant anxiety, are particularly vulnerable, both to the virus itself as well as the fake news it brings in its wake. Governments and humanitarian aid organizations must be aware of the threat of disinformation in refugee communities as they work to respond to the coronavirus. The efficacy of the pandemic response in refugee communities likely depends on it.
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Refugee Camps Fight Fake News Alongside Pandemic
UNHCR Refugee Camp. Photo by Sebastian Rich.
May 21, 2020
D
ecades after doctors stopped making house calls, he was carrying his work out door-to-door. Instead of carrying the classic black physicians’ bag, he donned rubber boots. Acting as part of an outreach drive sponsored by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), former Ivorian refugee Jocelyn Konet was one of 52 healthcare workers sent to respond to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Konet, however, was not just sent to fight a deadly virus. He had also been sent to face a more ubiquitous foe: fake news.
Disinformation was a large problem in the refugee communities which fought against Ebola. Healthcare workers such as Konet had to establish themselves as trusted sources of information in order to halt the spread of the 2014 outbreak. People had heard rumors that the hospital was the source of Ebola. As a result, at the beginning of the outbreak, people slammed the door in Konet’s face when he tried to spread tips about how to contain the deadly disease.
Disinformation has always accompanied infectious outbreaks. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, misinformation in American newspapers and government censors helped spread the virus. The American AIDS epidemic was accompanied by a Soviet disinformation campaign which claimed that the virus was the result of American experimentation with biological weapons. And today, in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, social media rumors have run rampant, attributing the respiratory infection to a Chinese bioweapon and claiming it can be cured with garlic.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, refugee communities might be particularly vulnerable to disinformation. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, refugee communities were kept in the dark with little access to accurate information. In many of these communities, people do not trust the government or may even be in conflict with the government. David Miliband, the CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), notes that in these areas, humanitarian aid organizations like the IRC can be instrumental in stopping the spread of false information. As part of their preparation for the fight against coronavirus, IRC staff is hoping to establish trust in order to spread accurate information about the coronavirus in communities which are often in conflict with governments they do not trust.
Fake news fears aside, refugees may already be more vulnerable to certain pandemic illnesses than other groups. With the highly contagious coronavirus in particular, the refugee population faces unique risks. Crowded refugee camps cannot comply with the social distancing requirements that have been implemented as part of many countries’ COVID-19 defense plans. A lack of running water might make it impossible to wash hands several times a day. And even as the current number of forcibly displaced persons worldwide reaches a record high 70.8 billion, most countries pandemic response plans do not explicitly recognize refugee needs.
Further, even though refugee camps have experienced outbreaks of other more deadly diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola, COVID-19 poses unique risks to refugees living in cramped camp quarters with little access to healthcare. COVID-19 is more contagious than Ebola. Experts use a disease’s R0 (pronounced “R-naught”) to determine how infectious a disease is. The R0 value indicates the average number of people from a group with no immunity who one sick person can infect with a certain disease. The common flu has an average R0 of 1.3. Ebola’s R0 ranges from 1.6-2.0, depending on the population which hosts it. Covid-19’s R0 ranges from 2.0-2.5 and could potentially be higher in refugee populations which are not adequately prepared to halt its transmission.
COVID-19’s resilience in human populations also sets it apart from other, more fatal respiratory infections. Even though SARS exhibited an R0 which ranged between 2-4 and a mortality rate of 15%, it lacked the resilience needed to stay in human populations. Additionally, since the symptoms associated with SARS were more severe than those associated with Covid-19, it was easier to identify patients and contain the virus. In contrast, the symptoms associated with Covid-19 (fever and dry cough) are initially mild and can easily be mistaken for those belonging to a less dangerous respiratory illness, like influenza.
Additionally, high population density in refugee camps could contribute to coronavirus dangers. New York City, one of the American hotspots for coronavirus, is home to 10,000 people per square kilometer across its five boroughs. In certain refugee camps in Bangladesh, population density ranges between 40,000 and 70,000 people per square mile. In addition to the novel coronavirus’s resilience in human populations, as well as its relatively high R0 value, the high population density within refugee campus make the disease a potentially deadly threat.
Faced with other deadlier fears as a result of the novel coronavirus, vulnerable refugee camps experience an additional threat as a result of misinformation that has been spread about the virus. In Bangladeshi camps where the government has limited internet access for Rohingya refugees, people have been told to consume pennywort to protect themselves. Other rumors insist that prayer and exposure to heat can ward off the coronavirus.
The humanitarian response to coronavirus in refugee camps has been shaped by the explosion of misinformation, which always accompanies infectious outbreaks. For the IRC, the first step in its coronavirus response plan is not sanitation stations or fever testing, but rather fighting disinformation. David Miliband notes that Ebola taught the IRC the importance of establishing trust within the communities where it works. He argues that health facilities become overwhelmed when communities don’t believe healthcare messaging about how to stay well. When people know how to stay well, they can avoid contracting infectious diseases like coronavirus, improving healthcare workers’ ability to respond to the people who need medical attention the most.
Experience with Ebola has also shaped the fight against misinformation for other humanitarian organizations working to stop the coronavirus spread in refugee communities. During the 2014 Ebola epidemic, UNHCR healthcare worker Jocelyn Konet went door-to-door in Liberian refugee camps to share practical information about how to stay safe during the pandemic, dispelling rumors that the virus was in water or being spread by health clinics. In refugee camps across the African continent, lessons learned in Liberia are helping those trying to stop the coronavirus from coming to Tanzania. After responding to the Liberian Ebola outbreak in 2014, healthcare worker Miata Tubee Johnson is using her experience to guide her response to Covid-19. “My experience in Liberia actually prepared me for where I am today,” Johnson told UNHCR News. “I feel a sense of déjà vu.”
Large refugee aid organizations like the UNHCR aren’t the only ones working to combat the spread of disinformation about the coronavirus. In early April, The Atlantic spoke with a man named Robbi who was going “block to block, door to door, and shack to shack” across his refugee camp in Bangladesh to transmit accurate information about coronavirus. Robbi, a Rohingya refugee, had been working for weeks to spread the word about coronavirus to families in the camp. Robbi’s work isn’t sanctioned by an international organization, and he’s been assisted by only a handful of others. He has been working to educate his community despite the communication restrictions inflected on Rohingya refugee camps by the Bangladeshi government. He uses a megaphone to make announcements about hygiene and social distancing measures as he hands out masks, soap, and gloves to people living in the camp.
Just as it has with every other large-scale infectious outbreak, disinformation will continue to spread as the coronavirus infects multiple areas of the globe. Refugee camps, often in areas where there is already little government trust and rampant anxiety, are particularly vulnerable, both to the virus itself as well as the fake news it brings in its wake. Governments and humanitarian aid organizations must be aware of the threat of disinformation in refugee communities as they work to respond to the coronavirus. The efficacy of the pandemic response in refugee communities likely depends on it.
