How WHO is engaging Big Tech to fight COVID-19
Silicon Valley companies met with the World Health Organization to share ideas on addressing COVID-19 before it became a pandemic. Andy Pattison, WHO manager of digital solutions, discusses how the agency approaches these tech partnerships and where they stand now.
SAN FRANCISCO — Before it was clear just how quickly COVID-19 would spread, Andy Pattison traveled from Geneva to Seattle and San Francisco to meet with tech companies about the emerging threat. The manager of digital solutions for the World Health Organization knew Silicon Valley could play a vital role in fighting the pandemic. “I said: ‘This is the problem, guys. There’s going to be a real need to use your channels and your technology to help us, and not only us, but the ministries of health and other NGOs in these countries,’” Pattison said. “I made this pitch on a human level to say, ‘Go back to your companies, get ready, start pulling together teams.’” On Feb. 13, Silicon Valley companies such as Dropbox, smart digital thermometer company Kinsa, and Amazon gathered at Facebook headquarters, where they learned about WHO’s COVID-19 response and shared their ideas to address the outbreak. As the coronavirus spread, Pattison had to cancel a trip to meet with tech companies in Asia. But he set up phone calls between WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the “big five” tech giants on the U.S. West Coast: Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Sixty projects have emerged from these in-person meetings and conversations. One high-profile example is the WHO Health Alert, a COVID-19 messaging service that resulted from a call Tedros had with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg proposed that WHO use Facebook-owned WhatsApp as a platform for COVID-19 information. A major topic of discussion at the Facebook meeting was how to stop the spread of misinformation about COVID-19, and since then, there have been several examples of companies taking action. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, for example, committed to remove “anything that goes against WHO recommendations.” “I see my job as getting more health messages to more people via more channels so they can make better-informed decisions about their health,” Pattison told Devex. For his work on COVID-19, Pattison is building on the foundation of preexisting WHO projects that leverage technology for a range of other global health priorities. For example, WHO worked with Google Fit, a health and activity tracker, to develop “heart points,” which gives users credit for activities that get their heart pumping. Pattison said that as COVID-19 spread, he looked at that existing partnership and asked himself, “What can we do for people using this tool religiously for COVID?” WHO and Google already had a legal framework in place. The next step was for WHO to provide content so that Google could start servicing it. Google Fit released an update notifying users of new information from WHO on ways to reduce the risk of catching and spreading infections. Pattison said his approach to technology partnerships is based on three pillars. “I see my job as getting more health messages to more people via more channels so they can make better-informed decisions about their health.” --— Andy Pattison, manager of digital solutions, World Health Organization The first is fighting misinformation, especially when it can harm people, like the misinformation about COVID-19 treatments. The second is highlighting good information. “What will happen in a vacuum if there’s no good information is people will make it up,” Pattison said. And the third is digital tools, which typically involve trying to reach people where they are instead of building something new. “The way a lot of people look at how to get content into people’s lives is they will try and drag people into their channels. They’ll have some kind of marketing or press release or say, ‘For more information, go to the website who.int.’ I’ve changed my strategy completely,” he said. “On a mobile phone, typically you have 30 apps, but only use three or four. What I want to do is get on the four that are in your phone. To change your habits and to change your digital journey is a lot harder than getting my content into somebody else’s life through the channels they’re already going to,” he said. Through its meeting with Facebook, the WHO team connected with Nmachi Jidenma, global strategy and business development lead at WhatsApp. She put WhatsApp engineers on the case and suggested that Turn.io, a software-as-a-service company that worked with the South African government to develop its COVID-19 WhatsApp help line, might convert WHO COVID-19 guidance into a conversation on the platform. Within 10 days, WHO, WhatsApp, and Turn.io had launched the product: a simple, menu-based layout for people seeking basic health information, which would then be translated across a range of languages. Part of the appeal of WhatsApp is its scale, with 2 billion active users. In fact, while the WHO Health Alert was initially released only to a small group of WHO staff members, it went viral when one of them shared it with family in India, Pattison said. But while virality proved useful for the spread of this service, it can also fuel misinformation. False or misleading posts spread quickly on social media platforms, due in part to the way their algorithms work. And while tech companies are taking steps to remove problematic content on COVID-19, they are having a hard time containing the spread of misinformation. “One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of my projects is where public health services have collapsed, digital is filling that gap.” --— Andy Pattison, manager of digital solutions, World Health Organization “The challenge I’ve got with them is to put sustainability and maturity over absolute profit, and that’s a tough conversation to have, because they've all got bottom lines,” Pattison said of his interaction with Silicon Valley tech companies. Another limitation of the WhatsApp platform specifically is that users have to engage for the conversation to continue. If people who receive health alerts, for example, do not keep asking questions or checking in beyond the initial conversation, there will be no further follow-up by WHO. Pattison spends much of his day-to-day managing the portfolio of projects focused on COVID-19. As he looks ahead, he is interested in expanding his tech partnerships to include the gaming industry. WHO will have to navigate the relationship carefully, since it has categorized video gaming, like gambling, as an addictive behavior, he said. But Pattison said that because gamers are online for hours a day, with the industry seeing record numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are opportunities for WHO to present them with COVID-19 information and other tips on lifestyle decisions, including increased physical activity. He said what excites him most about this work partnering with the tech sector is the way it can support people helping people. “One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of my projects is where public health services have collapsed, digital is filling that gap,” Pattison said. For example, half of all Arabic speakers using the WHO Health Alert are coming from one country: Yemen, where COVID-19 has exacerbated the health crisis. “This is where you realize: ‘Wow, we’re having an impact,’” he said.
SAN FRANCISCO — Before it was clear just how quickly COVID-19 would spread, Andy Pattison traveled from Geneva to Seattle and San Francisco to meet with tech companies about the emerging threat. The manager of digital solutions for the World Health Organization knew Silicon Valley could play a vital role in fighting the pandemic.
“I said: ‘This is the problem, guys. There’s going to be a real need to use your channels and your technology to help us, and not only us, but the ministries of health and other NGOs in these countries,’” Pattison said. “I made this pitch on a human level to say, ‘Go back to your companies, get ready, start pulling together teams.’”
On Feb. 13, Silicon Valley companies such as Dropbox, smart digital thermometer company Kinsa, and Amazon gathered at Facebook headquarters, where they learned about WHO’s COVID-19 response and shared their ideas to address the outbreak.
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Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
