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Misinformation During Covid-19

Posted on by jbranson

Misinformation During COVID-19

Written by Jack Branson

 

2020 has been a tough year. We lost Kobe Bryant, Australia was on fire for a month straight, but those things don’t seem to even cross our minds anymore and that’s because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the United States specifically we have had so many issues trying to contain the virus from spreading. A huge reason for this is because of the insane spread of misinformation that we consume daily, specifically from sources that we are supposed to trust like the government or the news. This is terrible for the US because this will continue to prolong our recovery from this virus and continue to jeopardize the lives and well-being of american citizens.   

 

What does that mean?

With regards to Covid, there’s seemingly new things being proven and discredited every day and the recommended way to combat the virus seems to change from day to day. But we never know what to trust and what not to trust. For example, in an article from Business Insider it was revealed that the United States government waited to tell the public to wear masks because there was such a low supply at the time and wanted that supply to be given to doctors working on the front lines.

In my opinion, that was a smart decision and it was warranted not to promote the masks to the public. However, what’s alarming about this discovery is that the government is something that we’re supposed to trust at all costs, and this withholding of important information is possible. This begs the question: If things were really bad and the United States was really in deep trouble, would the government even tell us? 

It’s these trust issues during this time of panic that makes everything even more stressful and makes it harder for the people of this country to know what they’re supposed to be doing. In addition, the CDC (The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the Trump Administration don’t get along well. According to The Lancet, Deborah Birx, previously the head of the US Covid-19 task force has been quoted as saying: “There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust.” This statement, whether she means it or not, is not a good message to be putting out to the public, because it allows for the public to distrust any messages they hear from the government and doesn’t allow for these officials to at least seem like they’re united. 

 

What is the cause of this

Katie Starbird, a crisis informatics researcher for Science says, that there is always a lot of worry about the results of a catastrophic event and how people can deal with it. That worry and anxiety in a time of panic, people try to make sense of what’s going on. Rumoring is a part of that because the public is trying to make sense of everything that’s going on. 

This fuels the chaos when there is no consolidated message from the higher up people that we are supposed to trust in times like these. If we’re hearing different things from the CDC, news, and government, that allows for the people to panic and believe whichever of the three sources they wish to believe.

An example of this comes from Emma Spiro a sociologist at the University of Washington said in a HighCountryNews article that there was a similar pattern after the Boston bombings in 2013. It’s a natural response from the public and media to a crisis like this, however it’s going to create bigger problems for us in the future. 

 

Why this is bad

This is bad because there are 4.6 million Covid cases in the United States and there’s no end in sight. A big reason for this is the fact that no one knows exactly how they’re supposed to be combatting the pandemic. PEW asked a panel of 50 experts what the biggest threat to the US will be in the 21st century and many chose the spread of misinformation from the media.

It’s inevitable that rumors will spread and that news stations will do what they need to do to make money and stay afloat, but the government has a responsibility to provide us with a clear message of how we are supposed to handle this pandemic and if this conflicting information continues to be broadcasted us the United States could be stuck with this pandemic for a long time.

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31 Comments

  1. I like how you brought the information from week one about misinformation and related it to your blog post topic. I completely agree 100%, it has seemed as if when we first learned about the coronavirus there is so much misinformation about how the virus travels, if wearing a mask helps, etc. Finding the correct people to listen to seemed like a big debate, which hasn’t been good for the US as we continue to increase our cases and jeopardize human lives in our country. I enjoyed reading your paragraph about how citizens find it hard to trust the right people during this time due to the panic and stress the virus has caused. This has made it hard for the people in this country to know how to protect themselves properly. It kind of makes me wonder if the media is helping or hurting citizens during this pandemic? Should certain platforms only be allowed to talk about certain aspects of the coronavirus? Should we have communicated resources through different ways? Overall the miscommunication and misinformation over the COVID-19 pandemic is a big reason that case is keep rising due to nobody knowing exactly how to combat the virus.

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