What is Coronavirus? (Covid-19)
Coronaviruses are a type of virus, some of which can cause disease.
Covid-19, also known as SARS-CoV-2, was recently discovered and is
responsible for the current worldwide pandemic. It emerged from
China in December of 2019.
Symptoms include:
- cough
- fever or chills
- shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- full list of symptoms
How is Social Media Spreading Misinformation?
An excerpt from the Harvard Gazette:
- "The sudden onset of a new, highly contagious coronavirus has unleashed what
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres last week called a “pandemic of misinformation,”
a phenomenon that has not gone unnoticed as nearly two-thirds of Americans
said they have seen news and information about the disease that seemed
completely made up, according to a recent Pew Research Center study."
Social media has been plagued with disinformation campaigns deliberately spreading false information,
one of the most notorious being the film "Plandemic", which claims that the pandemic is a ruse to force
people to vaccinate en masse. Most social media platforms have already banned the film.
There was also a video purporting to be of the Chinese government supposedly executing residents
in Wuhan infected with Covid.
There are also those making honest, genuine mistakes, such as advising others to eat garlic
or gargle with salt water to help protect against Covid-19.
The popularity of social media doesn't help either, as posts containing misinformation can gather
hundreds upon thousands of views. There is also the repost/foward feature that allows people
to pass said misinformation onto their friends and so on.
And with such little information availible, people are becoming more desperate, and as a
result willing to believe such far-fetched theories and ideas.