RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Centering Community Evidence in Global Health Preparedness: A Prebunking Convening with WHO Europe

Project Title: Centering Community Evidence in Global Health Preparedness: A Prebunking Convening with WHO Europe
PI: Kenneth Polonsky
Award Type: 1-Year IIRP-Based
Department: Medical School
Division/School: Medical School
Start Year: 2026
Description:

Health misinformation poses a growing threat to global public health, undermining trust in science and driving harmful behaviors during emergencies. This project brings together the University of Chicago, the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe office, and local research partners in Central Asia for a convening at the UChicago John W. Boyer Center in Paris to advance a community-centered prebunking research agenda. Rooted in inoculation theory, prebunking exposes people to manipulation tactics before they encounter misinformation and has demonstrated lasting effectiveness. Our research aims to test differentiated prebunking interventions across age groups (18–30 and 65+) and urban/rural settings in low- to middle-income countries underrepresented in existing literature, namely in Central Asia. The Paris convening will serve as a critical hub for aligning methodologies, synthesizing community-level findings, and co-developing evidence-based guidelines for the WHO Prebunking Playbook, a resource for 53 WHO Member States on integrating prebunking into health emergency preparedness. By uniting WHO's global policy expertise, local research knowledge, and UChicago's scholarly leadership in one place, this workshop will accelerate the translation of community-driven data into actionable public health tools and lay the foundation for expanded, multi-regional research collaboration.