Abdul Rahman
We live in an era of technology where fighting a disease also requires weapons like information. I feel lucky enough to work for an organization that provides information for a better world. Our healthcare heroes are leading the way in the fight against coronavirus. The responsibility to beat the virus doesn’t just lie with the healthcare heroes alone, but everyone must play a role to ensure full eradication of this pandemic. All of us are lucky enough to have simple roles like staying home, washing hands and fighting the misinformation that has hijacked the truth in many ways.
In these strange times, people are unsure about what to do and whom to trust, and some even have difficulty believing or trusting their own governments. It indeed is a challenge for health authorities to bring the right information to the public who are already overwhelmed with fake information. Now every other person on social media, especially on WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook, behaves as a medical professional and starts giving information about science which is nothing more than fiction. Some of these peddlers of misinformation are themselves victims of false information while others do it deliberately. This is not just limited to common people, but even famous personalities and public figures are involved in this misinformation campaign.
COVID-19 is a serious infectious disease that needs strong preventive measures. However, getting panicked and panicking others is an unnecessary addition to the already chaotic atmosphere. It is obvious that everyone wants to get tested to know whether they have contracted the virus; but that is impossible and unrealistic. Test kits are in a shortage and should be used only for symptomatic individuals and close relatives of the ones who test positive. All the suggested preventive measures should be followed by everyone; if someone unfortunately gets infected, they should not panic and instead believe in the healthcare system. We are in the phase of the pandemic wherein a lot of research has been already done on the virus and healthcare practitioners know a lot about how to treat infection. Everyone should be aware that the mortality rate of this virus is just around 3-4%, way lower than other viruses which we do not fear anymore. Also, only 5% of the patients become critical while the remaining 95% recover with mild symptoms, (1) with the most common symptoms being fever, cough (dry), fatigue, shortness of breath and headache (1,2); these symptoms are not something that we have never experienced. However, people above the age of 60 years are the ones at high risk and special care needs to be taken. The way social media and many news outlets have showcased the disease makes many feels that the virus is just waiting for us at our doorstep. Also, there is a widespread misinformation that contracting the infection means death, which is absolutely irresponsible. Such narratives create panic among people leading to unnecessary stress and financial burden. The result of this panic can be witnessed in hospitals and when one visits the toilet paper section in supermarkets in few countries.
Germany has done a great job in containing the disease, especially the mortality rates (0.7%). They have done extensive testing which led to early detection of the infection (3). A lot of companies have developed diagnostics kits and there will be enough kits available in the coming few days.
The misinformation campaign has gained so much prominence that it is actually eating away resources that were otherwise meant to tackle the real disease. WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recently said, “…we’re not just battling the virus, we’re also battling the trolls and conspiracy theories that undermine our response.”
The most surprising thing, particularity of this crisis, is that even literate people including the ones with a background in science are indulged in misinformation thus creating panic among the general public. Within a couple of weeks after the virus outbreak, the social media panic travelled faster than the coronavirus spread itself.
Most of us, spend time on social media while working from our homes/offices. Instead of fighting misinformation through facts, we are indulging in the false campaign knowingly or unknowingly through posting, liking, sharing or even ignoring misinformation. As said in the beginning, everyone has a role in eradicating this pandemic. There might be no way to treat COVID-19 in this advanced world, but factbased information is the most effective way to treat the disease of panic.
As a responsible citizen, we need to follow 2 steps to win the fight against this pandemic.
a) Don’t panic, that’s the most basic and important step.
b) Maintain hygiene including social distancing. Be cautious, do not touch your face unless you are sure that your hands are clean.
Stay informed, fight misinformation on social media by countering as many posts as you can. Do comment with the facts to counter misinformation even if it is coming from a celebrity or public figure. Don’t think about the outcome; even if a single person follows your advice that would be a great service to people. Fake information spreads like the virus and we need to break the contagious chain by countering it with facts similar to how we break the infection by washing our hands.
Ensure that you do not promote any fake information accidentally, find out the truth before liking or sharing the post. The golden rule to be applied on social media is “don’t share if you are not sure”. It is very simple to identify fake information by using one of the plenty available fact-checking websites. You don’t have to be an expert on virology or pathology to play your role. Promote information from official sources like WHO, CDC, NHS and health authority of your country. These organization have firsthand information about the current situation. Share information from such credible sources with a comment for your friends/network. You don’t need to have a huge following; people tend to believe and trust information when it comes from known people. As said previously, even if a single person follows the right information that would be a great service.
The words of Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at @LSHTM, stands so true .. “Misinformation on the coronavirus might be the most contagious thing about it”
Misinformation is going to make this coronavirus pandemic even more severe with loss of health and wealth of millions of innocent human beings. Keeping this in mind, we all need to fight this “misinfodemic” (misinformation + pandemic) to make this world a better place to live.
Maintain Hygiene Fight Misinformation
Author: Abdul Rahman (Clinical Content Specialist @ Clarivate Analytics, Hyderabad India)
