With COVID-19 ‘over’, applying the lessons learnt

Approximately 1,192 days since January 30, 2020, when COVID-19 was announced as a ‘public health emergency of international concern’, the World Health Organization, on May 5, 2023, declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern. Misinformation during the second wave In April-May 2021, there was a COVID-19 misinformation blitzkrieg: that a ‘third wave in India would affect children’. In late April 2023, the not-for-profit Foundation for People-Centric Health Systems, which is based in Delhi, analysed the trends and stance of influencers and experts on social media platforms and in newspaper reports on the COVID-19 linked mask enforcement for schoolchildren. Interestingly, ‘experts’ and influencers living outside India were making more definitive and stronger arguments for school closure and mask wearing for children in India. Three, India’s response to surges, outbreaks, and epidemics should be guided by a nuanced understanding of epidemiology and not unduly derailed by ‘social media influencers’.