The real cost of health misinformation and how fact-checkers work to address it

Health misinformation poses a threat not only to individuals’ health and wellbeing but also to public health more broadly, and it carries steep economic costs. In fact, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s 2025 State of the Union address last month explicitly called out the danger of health-related misinformation: "As a medical doctor by training, I am appalled by the disinformation that threatens global progress on everything from measles to polio.”

Consequences of health misinformation. False claims have fueled hesitancy around life-saving vaccines such as the HPV vaccine and cause questioning of evidence-based treatments like chemotherapy in favor of unproven “cures”.

The consequences go further; health misinformation creates an economic burden, too. It fuels costly vaccine-preventable outbreaks, drains healthcare systems when individuals turn to harmful alternatives or delay treatments, and opens the door to opportunists who profit from misleading health products. One recent study estimates that vaccine hesitancy related to the COVID-19 vaccine led to additional $2 billion in health care costs.

Health misinformation also feeds into polarization and broad distrust of institutions. This vicious cycle erodes the capacity to respond to future public health emergencies.

Fact-checkers’ role. European fact-checkers stand on the frontlines of this challenge. By debunking false claims, exposing scams, and strengthening public trust in science, they provide an essential service: to individuals seeking reliable information, to societies striving to safeguard public health, and to economies which depend on efficient interventions.

Fact-checkers in our network address a variety of health-related misinformation in their numerous national contexts, ensuring reliable, evidence-based information is available to empower individuals to make their own decisions about their health, based on the facts.