PAHO endorses Medialab's research on vaccine misinformation in new global guide

Work by MediaLab's researchers Daniel Catalán Matamoros and Carlos Elías has been cited in a new report by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), marking a significant milestone in the translation of academic research into global public health policy.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), published its 2025 guide, Combating false information on vaccines: A guide for health workers. The document explicitly references research conducted by the two full professors, both researchers at UC3M MediaLab and experts in science and health communication.

The guide aims to equip health workers with evidence-based tools to identify and counter anti-vaccine narratives. It addresses modern digital manipulation tactics and establishes response frameworks using techniques such as prebunking and debunking. This response comes amid declining immunization rates fueled by the spread of pseudoscience.

The inclusion of Catalán Matamoros and Elías’s work in this manual represents a key achievement in knowledge transfer. PAHO’s reports transcend academia: they form the empirical basis for official recommendations adopted by health ministries and health authorities in many countries of the American continent.

The research cited in the report was developed as part of the broader ecosystem of UC3M MediaLab. The study, originally published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, analyzed journalistic sources in the Spanish press to understand how vaccine hesitancy was constructed in media narratives.

That science generated from this ecosystem now underpins global guidelines demonstrates that rigorous analysis of communication has a direct impact on society. By providing physicians and public health managers with effective communication strategies, institutional trust is strengthened and lives are protected.

This international recognition reaffirms the leadership of the UC3M MediaLab team in the study of media literacy, consolidating disinformation.es as a reference in the fight against global information disorders.

Access to the full guide:

Combating false information on vaccines.

Download • 8.98MB