The Danger of Fake News During a Pandemic

Fake news have been circulating through social media since it was created, people have always tried to spread fear or damage someone's reputation, but during times of crisis, fake news are everywhere. In the beginning, everything was very confusing. Since nobody knew anything about the virus, here in Colombia even the news channels became questionable. 

As time went by, news channels seemed to have more accurate information and "trolls" really enjoyed misinterpreting truthful information and causing panic, in many occasions text messages went viral in my city, saying there was going to be a curfew, obligatory testing for everyone, celebrities being ill or dying and even a vaccine. Sadly, in this country many people lack proper education in order to easily differentiate between fake news and legitimate ones. 

This is mainly why the government decided to create a website (www.coronaviruscolombia.gov.co) in order to create consciousness and battle fake news. I have learned to only trust big news channels, their instagram accounts, and the government's website, everything else is prone to being fake. 

As the idea of a vaccine became more and more approachable, even news channels have posted fake information, even unintentionally. Countless headers along the lines of "A COVID 19 Vaccine was developed by ___" have been posted and countless apologies for posting fake news have followed them. Misinformation in times of coronavirus is more common than it should be, and it should be taken as a serious problem. 

This is one of the absurd text messages that went viral, it said there was a mandatory curfew and demanded everyone to stay inside closing all doors and windows because after 11:00pm Air Force helicopters were going to spray disinfectant all over the city. It sounds and is completely absurd, but it caused a lot of panic.