Misinformations about COVID-19

A new unknown virus recently arise in China and later spread worldwide
bringing fear to a lot of people as it already killed millions of lives around the world.
This virus is called COVID-19, a new found infectious disease that affects a person’s
respiratory health. It is reported that the new coronavirus (COVID-19) started in
China particularly in a seafood market in central Wuhan. The source of the virus has
not yet been identified as where it came from since the assessments on the virus
revealed the market was not the only single source of the outbreak.
As the new coronavirus suddenly pops out of nowhere and became pandemic
in just 3 months, people were advised to stay at home. People, however, would likely
engage in using TV, radio, cellphones and social media platforms like Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube to stay updated about the disease that claimed millions of lives.
Most people would probably use their cellphones to search in the internet or on their
social media accounts to get real time and faster updates because we’re in the era that
most individuals own cellphones as it is much more convenient to use. Based on
statistics 60% of the world’s population are online and use social media, a tool used to
communicate and exchange information. But as this news about the disease spread
online, some of the news released by different sources might not be credible enough
to support its content as the disease is a newly discovered virus that lacks information.
Specialists in the field of science on the other hand continues to study the virus. They
are doing their best to help people know what can the virus do to a human being yet
some people were quick enough to conclude things and even joke about the disease
itself. Take for example, there was a news released by BBC NEWS about a guy
named Michael Brandin who faked having infected by COVID-19. He posted in his
Facebook saying he tested positive for coronavirus and that the doctor had told him
that the virus was now airborne. The post caused anxious to people as the word
‘airborne’ in it means that it can be caught through air by simply breathing.
Eventually, he made that up for he did that as a social experiment and got arrested for
it. Next issue, RAPPLER released a news about a man claiming that their is a
medication for the virus. Boyet Castelo, a Filipino who lives in America went on
Facebook live and claimed that drinking hot water with salt can kill the virus. DOH
then said that “there is no medical evidence” that it can kill coronavirus besides their
has no establish cure for coronavirus as scientists are trying to develop a medicine for
it. Not only that but their are many more false news about the coronavirus circulating
on the internet like ‘vaccine are now available’, ‘coronavirus can be eliminated by
high temperature’,’lemons prevent coronavirus infection’, and many more.
The internet can be a big help for us in times like this and it is okay to share
information about the virus but people should at least know what the article is about
before sharing it because in this crucial time, people easily believes in anything that it
is posted online. Fake news are everywhere and there are bunch of people who writes
article that is in trend even if it is not true just to grab attention to people just like the
man who said that the virus is airborne and the man who said that the virus can be
killed by drinking hot water with salt. These two people doesn’t have a concrete
evidence as to what they have said. In addition, it just triggers emotions like fear and
anxious that did not even help in the situation the world is facing right now. Apart
from that people should be mindful enough to know the difference from a fact and a
fake. Practice to check everything from content of the article and the source as to
where it came from, there are verified accounts like WHO and DOH where they can
be updated about the virus as well as various trusted news. In light of what is
happening, we should learn and help others to be knowlegable about the situation and
to share the appropriate news to other people to avoid chaos.

References:
https://nypost.com/2020/04/24/celebrities-are-super-spreaders-of-fake
-coronavirus-news-study/
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52397294
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/novel-coronavirus-your-ques
tions-answered#1.-What-is-the-new-virus?
foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-03-30/coronavirus-fake-news-isnt-oth
er-fake-news
https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-
use-social-media
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/258812-drinking-hot-wate
r-salt-kills-flushes-out-coronavirus