Public Health Messaging: Information or Propaganda?

Apparently, telling the public the truth about how to attain and/or maintain health is exactly like promoting a political cause or point of view. That’s news to me.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

In my recent discussion about the rising anti-vaccine sentiment, I got the usual interesting comments. There were the anti-vaccine comments and the anti-government comments. It’s the latter I’d like to focus on because of a word used to describe public health communications during the COVID-19 pandemic: Propaganda.

Merriam-Webster defines propaganda as:

1. capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions
2. the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
3. ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause
   also : a public action having such an effect

What Does It Really Mean?

The word “propaganda” originated in 1622, when Pope Gregory XV established the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith), a…