Faced with the rapid growth of information channels, the rise of social networks, and the virality of false or misleading content, France’s health minister, Stéphanie Rist, has announced the launch of a “national strategy to combat health disinformation.”

The strategy is based on findings from the report titled “Health Information: Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis and Recommendations for a National Health Information and Anti-Disinformation Strategy,” which was delivered on January 12. The first actions will begin this month.

As Health Minister Yannick Neuder noted in his mission letter to the authors of the report — Mathieu Molimard, Dominique Costaglia, and Hervé Maisonneuve — the spread of false information in health matters today represents a major challenge for health democracy, trust in institutions, and patient safety.

Health and Scientific Literacy Gaps

The authors of the report were tasked with identifying actors engaged in the fight against health disinformation, collecting their feedback, and making recommendations. They conducted 156 interviews with 270 people between late August and late November 2025, resulting in more than 800 pages of transcripts.

The authors note that “recent health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the emergence of recurring infectious threats, have had the paradoxical effect of increasing the circulation of false information, scientifically unfounded interpretations, and manipulated content.”

The report highlighted three major weaknesses in the general population that make them vulnerable to disinformation:

1. Insufficient scientific education
2. Lack of critical thinking regarding information sources
3. Disruptions caused by digital technology in how information is consumed

Thus, “social media is the main source of information for half of 15- to 30-year-olds (53%), particularly Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where content arrives unfiltered, driven by algorithms that favor emotion and quick reactions at the expense of facts and reflection.”

Journalists Struggle With Disinformation

Generalist journalists often admit to feeling helpless in the face of health disinformation due to a lack of health literacy and the scarcity of scientific journalists in the field. Meanwhile, for those spreading health disinformation, it’s a free-for-all, regardless of the field: vaccination, cancer, diet, mental health, women’s health, nonconventional care practices, or environmental risks.

These “disinformers” have varied profiles — activist groups, rogue health professionals, or scientists — and motivations that are ideological but also commercial in the case of industrialists.

A few isolated individuals work to expose health disinformation, but they remain too few, and their resources are limited. “There is a total asymmetry between those who spread health disinformation and those who speak out to defend the facts. Scientists who defend the facts are harassed, pursued in their private lives, and targeted by intimidation lawsuits. Meanwhile, disinformers are rarely punished,” the authors discuss.

Recommendations to Tackle Disinformation

The authors propose nine key recommendations to fight health disinformation:

1. Promote education in critical thinking, science, health, and media literacy
2. Strengthen training in science, critical thinking, digital literacy, and communication
3. Develop a public information and disinformation-fighting plan in each institution
4. Introduce a Health Info-Score, similar to Nutri-Score, to evaluate health information
5. Create an observatory for health information
6. Develop an infovigilance system within the observatory for health information
7. Shift the risk: Punish disinformers and protect scientists
8. Prioritize infodemiology as a research area with dedicated funding and equipment
9. Act at the European level

Four-Part Plan

Minister Rist, addressing these recommendations, announced the launch of her plan in four areas.

First Area: Listening and Citizen Consultation

The strategy focuses on a listening phase and citizen consultations. Starting in January, 18 individual interviews are being conducted to “explore perceptions and belief logics.” Following that, a national barometer, the first results of which will be released in April 2026, will aim to measure public opinion on health disinformation. Also planned during this initial phase are the creation of online communities to “observe citizens’ attitudes toward health disinformation” and the establishment of a citizens’ committee.

Second Area: Establishing a Health Disinformation Observatory

A health disinformation observatory will be set up to better inform, alert, and raise awareness among health professionals, journalists, and other key stakeholders.

Third Area: Health Information Monitoring System

A three-step health infovigilance system will be launched for monitoring and detecting false health information, responding (coordinated by experts) to that disinformation, and “implementation of dissemination and response tools,” notably on YouTube and TikTok.

Fourth Area: Building a Foundation of Trust

The strategy aims to build a long-term foundation of trust conducive to health information. Among the planned actions are the creation of educational kits on health information for teachers and students, holding platforms accountable within the framework of regulation of digital services, and integrating health disinformation into research programs.

This story was translated from Medscape’s French edition.