Anisha, a university student, googles the question, “are the Covid-19 vaccines effective”? She gets over 50 million results. The first page includes legitimate medical advice from Mayo Clinic, dubious claims from health and wellness bloggers, and health forums filled with personal anecdotes. How does Anisha know which sources deserve her trust and which could lead her astray? In the next few minutes, you’ll learn a systematic approach that Anisha, and for that matter, you can apply to cut through the noise and protect your health.

🧩 Threat Component — Information Overload & Source Confusion

Section 1: Source Hierarchy for Health Information

Not all health information is created equal. Understanding the credibility pyramid can save your life.

Tier 1: Gold Standard Sources

At the top of the credibility pyramid sit peer-reviewed medical journals like The Ghana Medical Journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, etc. These publications require multiple expert doctors to review research before publication. Government health agencies like the FDA and Ghana Health Service represent institutional knowledge backed by thousands of researchers.

Major medical organisations—the Ghana Medical Association, American Cancer Society, World Health Organisation—synthesise vast amounts of research into evidence-based recommendations.

Tier 2: Professional Medical Guidance

Licensed healthcare providers with relevant expertise offer personalised advice based on established medical knowledge. This includes your primary care physician, specialists in relevant fields, and licensed practitioners working within established medical systems.

However, remember that individual doctors can have biases, outdated knowledge, or financial conflicts of interest. The key is ensuring they’re practicing evidence-based medicine within accredited institutions.

Tier 3: Credible Health Portals

Reputable health journalism from established outlets like the Postgraduate Medical Journal of Ghana, WebMD (for basic information), Harvard Health Publishing etc. These sources typically cite primary research and interview multiple experts.

Tier 4: Questionable Territory

Health blogs, wellness websites, and social media influencers occupy dangerous middle ground. Some provide excellent information, but many mix legitimate advice with dangerous misinformation. Personal testimonials, product reviews, and alternative medicine websites require extreme scepticism. Always treat and approach these sources with extreme  caution.

Tier 5: Red Flag Sources

Avoid sources that sell products alongside health advice, claim conspiracy theories about mainstream medicine, or promise miracle cures. Websites without clear authorship, credentials, or citations should be immediately suspect.

Inoculation Element:

You will encounter sources designed to look trustworthy but aren’t. Learning to verify source credibility is your primary defence against sophisticated health misinformation.

The Authority Mirage

Misinformation operators deliberately mimic credible sources. They create fake medical journals with official-sounding names, build websites that look like government health pages, and use stolen credentials from real doctors. Surface appearance means nothing—verification is everything.

⚠️ Weak Exposure — Examples of Misleading but ‘Professional-Looking’ Sources

Section 2: The 5-Step Verification Protocol

Use this systematic approach every time you encounter significant health information that could influence your decisions.

Step 1: Check Source Credentials and Funding

Start with the author’s qualifications. Are they licensed healthcare professionals? What’s their specialty and institutional affiliation? A dermatologist giving heart surgery advice should raise red flags, even if they have legitimate medical credentials.

Follow the money trail. Who funds this research or website? Pharmaceutical companies funding studies on their own products isn’t automatically disqualifying, but it requires extra vigilance.

Step 2: Look for Peer Review and Replication

Real medical breakthroughs don’t appear in blog posts—they appear in peer-reviewed journals after rigorous evaluation by other experts. Check if claims are based on published research by searching PubMed, Google Scholar, or asking “Has this been peer-reviewed?”

Single studies prove very little in medicine. If someone claims “studies show” but cites only one small study from 1987, be sceptical.

Replication is crucial in science. Has this finding been reproduced by independent researchers? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, meaning multiple high-quality studies by different research teams.

Step 3: Assess Conflicts of Interest

Everyone has biases, but some conflicts of interest are disqualifying. Does the author sell products related to their health claims? Do they profit from alternative treatments while criticising conventional medicine?

Step 4: Verify with Multiple Independent Sources

Never base health decisions on single sources, no matter how credible they seem. Cross-reference claims with at least three independent, reputable sources. If major health organisations disagree with a claim, that’s a significant red flag. Check international perspectives. Health misinformation often focuses on single countries or regions.

Step 5: Check with Healthcare Provider

Your healthcare provider knows your personal medical history and can contextualise general health information for your specific situation. They can explain whether new information applies to your circumstances and help you weigh risks and benefits.

Practice Exercise:

Apply this protocol to evaluate the claim that “Vitamin D supplements prevent COVID-19.” Work through each step systematically, checking credentials of sources making this claim, looking for peer-reviewed research, assessing conflicts of interest, finding multiple independent sources, and formulating questions for your healthcare provider.

5-Step Verification Protocol Practice

Let’s practice with a sample health claim:

Practice Scenario

“Dr Amesimeku, a University of Ghana-trained cardiologist, reveals in his new book that 96% of heart attacks can be prevented with his revolutionary RikkiCure. In a groundbreaking study published in the International Journal of Cardiology Research, Dr. Amesimeku showed that patients taking his specific RikkiCure formula reduced their risk of heart attack by 89%. ‘Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about this natural solution because they can’t patent it,’ says Dr. Amesimeku. Order his RikkiCure supplements now for GHS 499.”

Follow the above protocol to verify such claim.