[Communication in times of pandemic: information, disinformation, and provisional lessons from the coronavirus crisis].

Objective: To characterise the infodemic associated with the COVID-19 and to analyse information consumption, trust in sources, the role of the media and government communication, focusing in the case of Spain, as well as to discuss some provisional communication lessons from studies on this and other pandemics.

Method: Bibliographic search in PubMed and Scopus and review of selected documents with the criteria of relevance to the objectives and the Spanish setting.

Results: The COVID-19 pandemic has overlapped with an infodemic that has led to the largest avalanche of disinformation known to date and to difficulties in finding reliable information for almost half of the population. In Spain, information consumption has focused on traditional media and WhatsApp; the media were relatively well-rated and helped understand the pandemic, although they are considered less trustworthy in Spain than in other Western countries. The analysis of Spanish government communication shows errors such as overly reassuring messages at the beginning of the pandemic, lack of transparency, excess of information and the spokesperson model adopted.

Conclusions: Knowledge about the infodemic associated with COVID-19 is fragmentary and insufficient. Even though the health crisis is not closed for adequate evaluation, some provisional communication lessons can be drawn. The complexity of the disinformation phenomenon requires considering infodemiology as a scientific discipline to understand both the spread of disinformation and the spread of disease.