Can social media platforms win fight against coronavirus myths?
By Md Hafez
When the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) began in China, the fear of deaths and rumors spread rapidly throughout the world. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, a common myth was that the virus was a bio-weapon developed by the Chinese government or by Bill Gates spreading on social media which is not supported by any reliable documents. Another myth is that drinking vodka or whiskey will help to wash out the coronavirus.
According to Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center, Philadelphia, “You can never consume enough alcohol to kill all the virus in your body without first killing yourself”.
Likewise, it is said that extreme heat can kill the virus, but that degree of heat will also kill the person because no human can absorb 90°C of heat for 15 minutes.
Moreover, a dangerous claim that is spreading on social media called self-check test which falsely claims that people who can hold their breaths for 10 seconds, without coughing or discomfort, do not have the virus infection.
But the reality is that most young patients with Coronavirus will be able to hold their breaths for much longer than 10 seconds and many elderly without the virus won’t be able to do it said Dr. Faheem Younus, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Maryland.
In Bangladesh, several rumors spread quickly regarding Coronavirus. One of the rumor is that if people eat “Thankuni Pata” regularly, COVID-19 will not affect them. Furthermore, the sharing of false videos of Corona patients on social media has elevated the level of anxiety among people.
But the truth is that the treatment of COVID-19 is still a big question mark. There are a lot of things we frankly don’t know yet about the coronavirus, and for the creators of those platforms, differentiating the right details from the wrong ones is a tough process. That trouble multiples when the rumors and misinformation are dispersed in social media.
At present, the spread of rumors is a commonplace on social media, where the sharing of content from biased sources repeatedly takes place regardless of fact-checking. That’s why coronavirus myths are starting to yield up on both Facebook and Twitter, along with YouTube and TikTok and messaging apps like WhatsApp.
The extensive spread of myths regarding COVID-19 has several negative impacts on our society. Firstly, the Novel Coronavirus outbreak is continuously triggering panic attacks among people because of increasing death rates, sudden unemployment rates, and physical isolation from loved ones alongside several rumors and misinformation about coronavirus.
Secondly, the more the concentration on Coronavirus myths, the more the people will misguide to take protective measures such as using face masks.
Finally, the extensive panic resulting from Coronavirus rumors creates a worse situation in our country where people are abandoning the dead bodies of relatives in fear of contracting the virus, while some are left the dead body of the beloved one in an empty house and escaped from there.
In this frightening time, we should focus on the trustworthy source of news regarding COVID-19 such as the World Health Organization and local public health authorities. Meanwhile, several social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter have launched a special reporting option that allows users to flag and report tweets that contain false or misleading information.
As a socially responsible person, we should verify news and videos before sharing it with other people on social media. We all need to do our part to avoid spreading rumors and creating unnecessary panic.
Lastly, if you think that the constant monitoring of news and social media feeds intensifies the level of anxiety, it will be better to limit your social media news consumption to a specific time frame of the day (e.g. one hour each day).
The writer is Assistant Professor of School of Business at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology.
