The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting communities around the world. For the two billion of those people who also use the encrypted communication service WhatsApp, now more than ever is a time for calling, messaging, and seeking trustworthy information. So the World Health Organization is going where the people are, launching a new tool called WHO Health Alert on WhatsApp today.
When you text "hi" to +41 79 893 1892 over WhatsApp, you'll receive back a text from the WHO that includes a variety of menu items for the latest information, like novel coronavirus infection rates around the world, travel advisories, and misinformation that should be debunked. Think of it like a hotline: Text 1 for the latest statistics, 4 for mythbusters, that type of thing. The WHO can also send out proactive alerts as needed to everyone who's signed up.
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The WHO isn't the first to enlist WhatsApp in this manner. The Facebook-owned app's ubiquity and experience handling disinformation has made an obvious choice for governments and international organizations, placing it squarely at the center of the novel coronavirus response—with all the responsibility and controversy that entails.
"We already have over one million people signed up even though we haven’t even announced it yet," says Will Cathcart, who runs WhatsApp, of WHO Health Alert. "It's great. There seems to be a lot of appetite from people for ways to get good, accurate information and we’re happy to do what we can there to help."
Helplines are preferable in many ways to landing pages, social media profiles, or massive open channels, because they allow governments to use WhatsApp like regular users, having one-to-one interactions with c ..
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