The world is inundated with fake news and conspiracy theories. The global pandemic sparked a wave of misinformation that has had severe repercussions for health and wellbeing.
YouTube is putting an end to the misinformation pertaining to COVID-19 by partnering with various health organisations to create medical videos for its platform.
"YouTube is unveiling a new health partnerships team to address the evolving digital health needs of consumers and continue connecting people with credible health information. As part of this ongoing commitment to supporting credible health information, we will be working with organizations including the American Public Health Association, Cleveland Clinic, The Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health, Mayo Clinic, Osmosis, Psych Hub, and the National Academy of Medicine. We’re working to make high-quality health content available for viewers around the world," said the streaming giant in a statement.
The project is led by Dr Garth Graham who will work to further YouTube's endeavours to create authoritative, quality content, that uses evidence-based sources.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored that good communication is one of the most powerful tools in healthcare and it has never been more important to ensure valid information reaches people who need it most," said Dr Graham when asked how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way public health information is shared.
He continued: "Health authorities around the world have a tremendous challenge in the months ahead to continue to educate people about the new COVID-19 vaccines. But the scale and reach of platforms like YouTube, that allow for engaging, easy-to-understand information to be shared easily and efficiently, can help meet that challenge and improve community health long into the future.
"Since March, we’ve served over 400 billion impressions of information panels that relate to COVID-19, and our creators have conducted more than 60 interviews with leading health officials, including Fat Joe’s conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Roshni Mukherjee’s discussion about how to manage stress during COVID-19 with Dr. Manoj Sharma. Creator health interviews have received more than 65 million views worldwide, and we look forward to more of these conversations in the year ahead.”