Infodemic Disorder

This contributed volume identifies how the information processes of public institutions and citizens have changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, within a new context that emerged: the infodemic disorder. Public debate is largely characterized today by a crisis of the legitimacy of institutions, accompanied by a crisis of authority in public communication, leading to the emergency of a state of information disorder due specifically to the need to find information related to the coping of the pandemic. This condition is characterized by growing attention to issues related to ‘fake news’, ‘misinformation’, and ‘media manipulation’, that are intertwined in digital platform ecosystems, and the effects of which on democracy, public communication and research, and the sharing of information in the civic sphere are broad and far-reaching. This volume analyzes the links between communication strategies of public institutions, and the resulting citizen communication, in an attempt to tease out how communication processes have changed during the pandemic. It was decided to investigate this infodemic disorder as it appeared in three different geographical contexts: Europe, Canada and Mexico and, at the same time, to bring out the formal and informal coping strategies implemented by public institutions and citizens. Beginning with an introduction to the crisis of information created by the pandemic, the contributors build a theoretical framework, provide contagion data, and subsequently, for each of the geographical contexts analyzed, explore the public communication strategies and those activated by citizens seeking to share information.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), produces the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), with atypical pneumonia. This infection is a global health challenge producing post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), including neuro-PASC in which direct or indirect invasion of the virus into the brain causes immune dysregulation, hormonal disorders, elevated cytokine levels due to immune reaction and chronic inflammation, direct tissue injury, and persistent low-grade infection. The COVID-19 induced-neuroinflammation promotes blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, access of antigens and inflammatory factors into the brain, as well as infection or immune-mediated response in the neuromuscular system. It is therefore necessary to explore whether there is a close correlation with the adenosine pathway, the activation of the ACE receptor by the virus, the concentration of IL6 and the neuro-invasive effect of COVID-19. Other points of interest are the analysis of the autonomic dysfunction induced by cytokines; the effect of vaccine mRNA delivery in Central and Peripheral Nervous System, the long-term effects of Covid 19 infection and/or therapeutic approach in different pandemic countries. In this Research Topic we aim to including submissions and research from different countries, which will allow comparisons of loco-regional clinical experiences, diagnostic flow-charts, and different therapeutic approaches.

What caused the Covid-19 pandemic, a natural spillover event or an accident in a Wuhan laboratory? Were the mitigation measures imposed by many governments - such as lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates - based on scientific evidence, or rather aimed at curtailing civil liberties and disrupting economic activities, under the secret maneuvering of a global cabal of politicians and financiers? And were Covid-19 vaccines effective in curbing the spread of the disease, or were they just a profitable scheme by big pharmaceutical companies? These questions and speculations, some legitimate, some dubious, have been swirling around the globe through social media, alternative information outlets, instant messaging apps, and mainstream media since the beginning of the pandemic, feeding the 'infodemic' - an overwhelming surge of information, misinformation, rumours and conspiracy theories which continue to linger in public and private discourse. With an original take on concepts and theories drawn from post-truth and disinformation studies, the book analyses the 'infodemic' through a series of global case studies. Framing the infodemic as a complex, multi-layered phenomenon with vast geopolitical implications, Gabriele Cosentino reveals the global competition for control in twenty-first century geopolitics between Western liberal democracies and non-Western autocracies, and above all between the United States and China.