![](https://fas.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/14d834_a3cc5a0a18a7453da5e05daf85f1baa7-mv2.jpg)
A National Strategy to Counter COVID-19 Misinformation
Summary
The United States accounts for over 20% of global deaths related to COVID-19 despite only having 4% of the world’s population. This unacceptable reality is in part due to the tsunami of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 that has flooded our nation. Misinformation not only decreases current compliance with best practices for containing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19, but will also feed directly into resistance against future administration of a vaccine or additional public-health measures.
The next administration should establish an office at the Department of Health and Human Services dedicated to combating COVID-19 misinformation. This office should lead a coordinated effort that:
- Ensures that evidence-based findings are at the core of COVID-19 response strategies.
- Utilizes data science and behavioral analytics to detect and counter COVID-19 misinformation.
- Works with social-media companies to remove misinformation from online platforms.
- Partners with online influencers to promote credible information about COVID-19.
- Encourages two-way conversations between public-health officials and the general public.
- Ensures that public-health communications are supported by on-the-ground action.
The SIPRI chapter describes the nuclear weapon modernization programs underway in each nuclear-armed state and provides estimates for how many nuclear warheads each country possesses.
FAS researchers Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda with the Nuclear Information Project write in the new SIPRI Yearbook 2024, released today.
The total number of U.S. nuclear warheads are now estimated to include 1,770 deployed warheads, 1,938 reserved for operational forces. An additional 1,336 retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement, for a total inventory of 5,044 warheads.
A military depot in central Belarus has recently been upgraded with additional security perimeters and an access point that indicate it could be intended for housing Russian nuclear warheads for Belarus’ Russia-supplied Iskander missile launchers.