COVID-19 is associated with unprecedented difficulties to the public health, and the related infodemic is challenging as well. As recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the concept of infodemic is understood as the widespread dissemination of misinformation about the coronavirus (Marwitz, 2020). The rapid onset of the disease, anxiety, and frustration in society, as well as mass uncertainty, contribute to the infodemic. In this regard, pharmacists should take an active position to prepare for the practice and dispel myths about COVID-19. Among the specific needs of pharmacy services, there is providing professional guidance to pharmacists, offering evidence-based pharmaceutical care, and identifying emergency drug formularies. According to Liu et al. (2020), reliable documents should be formulated in consistency with the developing medical research and emerging treatment options. The mechanisms to prevent drug shortages, storage issues, and safe use of drugs should also be established. Considering that COVID-19 is a relatively new disease that causes various complications, pharmacists should be aware of the recent advancements in treating patients. For instance, the China National Health Commission (CNHC) recommended some off-label drugs at the very beginning of the pandemic, the adverse effects of which can be similar to the coronavirus symptoms, including influenza-like states (Liu et al., 2020). Therefore, it is essential for pharmacists to learn about the details of drug therapies to share credible information with patients. Remote pharmacy services compose one of the ways to decrease human-to-human interactions, which is beneficial for both patients and pharmacists to protect their health. Pharmacists are expected to proactively prevent the dissemination of misinformation. They should have sufficient skills and knowledge to identify and respond to misinformation; for example, the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose (CRAAP) test can be utilized (Erku et al., 2021). To address uncertainty and fear, pharmacists should offer alternatives and understandable explanations. In particular, communities should be educated about vaccination benefits as well, which is critical to avoid doubling-up influenza symptoms. In this case, pharmacists are at the frontline of encouraging people to use vaccination opportunities to help their own immunity and healthcare systems to prevent overburdening (Erku et al., 2021). The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) designed a guidance that pays attention to safety measures of using drugs (Bukhari et al., 2020). This document, along with other reliable information sources, can be considered by pharmacists in their practice. Depending on a certain state of affairs in their regions, such as the availability of medication, health services, staff preparation, and other factors, countries should be encouraged to formulate their guidelines to adjust international recommendations (Bukhari et al., 2020). At the same time, the education of pharmacists should be focused not only on disease prevention but also infection prevention. The presentation of new drugs evokes incredible excitement in public, and many people strive to purchase them just in case, while those who actually need them encounter drug shortage (Marwitz, 2020). To prevent such situations, pharmacists should provide more information about home therapies and potential drug-related problems that may appear if using drugs inappropriately. Bukhari et al. (2020) emphasize that pharmacists should work as active members of interdisciplinary teams, which means that they can refer to other health care providers to clarify required information. To conclude, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the infodemic that refers to misinformation, falsified medicines, and public uncertainty. As the frontline of public health, pharmacists need credible information to provide safe and evidence-based care and eliminate misinformation.
References
Bukhari, N., Rasheed, H., Nayyer, B., & Babar, Z. U. D. (2020). Pharmacists at the frontline beating the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, 8, 1-4.
Erku, D. A., Belachew, S. A., Abrha, S., Sinnollareddy, M., Thomas, J., Steadman, K. J., & Tesfaye, W. H. (2021). When fear and misinformation go viral: Pharmacists’ role in deterring medication misinformation during the ‘infodemic’ surrounding COVID-19. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 17(1), 1954-1963.
Liu, S., Luo, P., Tang, M., Hu, Q., Polidoro, J. P., Sun, S., & Gong, Z. (2020). Providing pharmacy services during the coronavirus pandemic. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 42(2), 299-304.
Marwitz, K. K. (2020). The pharmacist’s active role in combating COVID-19 medication misinformation. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 1-4.