There are tons of fake and misleading news we see everyday especially on social media. One example of these is a recent photo that was shared saying that there is a way to know if the person has the new disease COVID-19 or not. The picture states that some Japanese doctors suggested that the person needs to hold his breath for 10 seconds, if he was comfortable and did not feel the urge to cough then he does not have the virus. It also says that we need to drink water every 15 minutes because the water can transfer the virus to the stomach which will kill the coronavirus by its acidity.
This type of information is considered bogus where the information is completely made up and false to mislead people. There is an article in BBC that refutes this information.
In order to overcome this misinformation environment in 2020, various measures should be implemented by both societies and authorities. Chenjerai Kumanyika (2018) said that we need to create a society in which it is critical in reading the media and have basic literacy skills. Misinformation and fake news spread might also penalized by authorities which could stress how important is this issue and thus prevent it.
References
European Association for Viewers Interests. (2017). Beyond fake news: Ten types of
misleading information. https://eavi.eu/beyond-fake-news-10-types-misleading-info
Kumanyika, C. (2018). Pour en finir avec les fausses nouvelles. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10ErbfwG14&feature=youtu.be
Six coronavirus health myths fact-checked. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-51735367
Xiaoyue Zhang 