Acting on the wrong information can kill.

In the first 3
months of 2020, nearly 6 000 people around the globe
were hospitalized because of coronavirus
misinformation, recent research suggests. During this
period, researchers say at least 800 people may have
died due to misinformation related to COVID-19*.
Many false claims about COVID-19 have been made on
social media, including that the virus was bioengineered
in a lab in Wuhan (Andersen et al., 2020; Cohen, 2020),
that the 5G cellular network is causing or exacerbating
symptoms of COVID-19, and the selling of fake "cures"
like gargling with lemon or salt water and injecting
yourself with bleach (World Health Organization, 2020a)
(BBC News, 2020). On May 4, 2020, the conspiracy movie
"Plandemic" debuted online. It received millions of views
and immediately rose to the top of the list of the most
well-known instances of coronavirus disinformation
(Cook et al., 2020). For instance, the movie spreads
harmful health advice by mistakenly asserting that
wearing a mask "activates" the coronavirus.