In today’s fast-moving information landscape, trust in health systems is no longer a given—it must be actively built, maintained, and protected. As misinformation spreads rapidly and confidence in institutions is challenged, strengthening trust has become a core public health priority.

This session explores how misinformation and disinformation are not just communication issues, but structural challenges that affect health outcomes, policy decisions, and democratic resilience. Bringing together perspectives from public health, policy, and digital governance, the discussion will highlight how trust can be rebuilt through transparency, accountability, and evidence-informed action.

Participants will gain insights into emerging approaches such as infodemic management and explore how collaboration across sectors can help create more reliable and trustworthy health information environments.

Join us to unpack why trust is something we do—not just something we have—and how collective action can strengthen both public health and democracy across Europe.

Speakers

• Charlotte Marchandise, EUPHA Executive Director
• Olha Izhyk, Risk Communication and Infodemic Management Officer in the Health Security Division, WHO
• Mathieu Molimard, leader of the mission, Pharmacologist, Pneumonologist, Head of Department, Chair of  the Medical Advisory Committee (Pellegrin Hospital) – Vice President of the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT)
• Tiago Correia, Editor-in-Chief European Journal of Public Health

Health disinformation and misinformation is spreading at scale on vaccines, alcohol, tobacco, and beyond. It erodes trust in science, weakens public health systems, fuels online harassment of experts, and threatens democratic values.

As early as 2024, the annual UN Global Risk Report identified disinformation and  misinformation as among the most pressing global risks. Europe is no exception: vaccination rates are falling, preventable diseases are resurging, and public health professionals are daily confronted with organised infodemic campaigns that outpace their capacity to respond.

It makes the case for a dedicated health pillar on three grounds, which will structure the roundtable discussion preceding the live demonstration of the EU Health Fact Force prototype :

•   Scale and urgency: health disinformation and misinformation spreads faster than institutional responses, requiring a standing coordination infrastructure rather than ad hoc reactions.
•   Democratic stakes: health narratives are increasingly deployed to polarise publics, erode trust in science, and delegitimise regulatory action making them a direct instrument of democratic destabilisation.
•   Existing capacity: Europe already hosts a dispersed but rich ecosystem of public health actors, data scientists, and civil society organisations ready to be mobilised, what is missing is a coordinating architecture.

EU Health Fact Force is a collaborative project bringing together EUPHA, Data for Good, the Platform for Global Health, and WHO Europe to build an open-source search and visualization engine linking scientific evidence to disinformation and misinformation trends. During this event, we will present a live prototype demonstration, a concrete, scalable blueprint. By combining open-source data science with coordinated networks of trusted public health messengers, it demonstrates how the public health community can shift from reactive debunking to proactive, anticipatory infodemic governance.

Through a live demonstration and interactive discussion, participants will discover how Europe can move from reactive debunking to proactive, anticipatory action, strengthening both public health and democratic resilience.

Join us to explore how collaboration, technology, and trusted networks can help protect the integrity of health information—and shape a more informed and resilient Europe.

Speakers

• Cristina Modoran, Head of the Policy Strategy Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety, DG SANTE
• Charlotte Marchandise, EUPHA Executive Director
• Federica Zavatarro, EUPHAnxt
• Emma Shiffman, Research Manager at Health Action International : ECHO project – Engaging Citizens in Honest Opinion: A Citizen-Led Initiative to Counter Disinformation and for Honest Opinion and Information Integrity,
• Tiago Correia, Editor-in-chief European Journal of Public Health
• Sami B. Torres, Project Manager,  Data for Good NGO
• Joe Smyser, CEO, The Public Good Projects

The views expressed during this session do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission or DG SANTE.

Onsite registration will start at 13.30.

Disinformation is a direct threat to public health and democratic governance. It erodes institutional trust, distorts health behaviour, and undermines the accountability mechanisms that democratic societies depend on. The proliferation of AI-mediated information environments has accelerated these dynamics, reshaping how citizens, and particularly young people, encounter, evaluate, and act on health information. Therefore, addressing disinformation is not just a technical or communication challenge, it is part of a broader effort to strengthen the links between peace, democracy, and health.

This webinar contributes to the European Public Health Week 2026 daily theme of Protecting public health and democracy: tackling disinformation, strengthening accountability, and building trust, approaching it from a distinctively early-career perspective. Young public health professionals are digital natives who have come of age within contested information ecosystems. This webinar creates space for them to share experiences, reflect critically on the challenges they observe, and explore strategies for strengthening information integrity and democratic accountability in public health.

Speakers will bring global perspectives, reflecting on how these challenges play out in different political and regional contexts.