Posted on 03/13/2020 10:09:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last year we had a call from a concerned but grateful parent. Having previously been sceptical about vaccines, having read one of our fact checks, she’d decided to go ahead and have her children vaccinated. It sticks in my mind as an example of the harm that bad information can do – not just to our democracy, which as fact checkers we’re often asked about – but to our health.
Misleading claims around vaccines have encouraged parents to disregard medical advice and take unnecessary risks with their children’s lives. Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus began, we have been fighting a similar tide of false claims and exaggerations. Much of this has originated and spread on social media. As is common during global news events – especially health crises – some have sought to pin the blame on familiar enemies, whether it is 5G technology, the Rothschilds or Chinese lab scientists. Many people have spread conspiracy theories, playing on our fears by suggesting that somehow the institutions that are supposed to protect us somehow had forewarning of – or even planned – the global outbreak of this deadly virus.
But of particular concern in the short term are those spreading false or misleading health advice. This is often done with the best of intentions: it’s a natural response to a scary situation to pass on advice that you think might help protect your friends and family. But if that information turns out to be inaccurate, you risk doing more harm than good.
The misinformation we’ve seen broadly falls into three separate categories. Some, such as the claim that children are immune, begin life with a kernel of truth – here, that the symptoms in children are generally less severe than they are in older people.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
THANK YOU for posting this.
SOME COMMON MISINFORMATION (FROM THE ARTICLE):
* The “advice” that a runny nose means you have a common cold – not Covid-19. This is wrong; this symptom is rarer in Covid-19 sufferers, but it does not rule it out.
* Unfounded claim that the virus will die in temperatures above 27C (80F)
* Telling people that the new coronavirus “doesn’t infect children” – as one broadsheet columnist claimed on Twitter – may lead people to make potentially fatal decisions.
* An academic paper claimed the virus has been “genetically engineered” to pass between humans more efficiently
* the World Health Organization knew about Covid-19 years before the current outbreak
* mass cremations may be secretly taking place in Wuhan, based on “satellite images” that a bit of checking revealed weren’t satellite images at all ( see here: https://fullfact.org/health/satellites-wuhan-sulphur-dioxide-coronavirus/ )
SOME COMMON MISINFORMATION (FROM THE ARTICLE):
* The “advice” that a runny nose means you have a common cold – not Covid-19. This is wrong; this symptom is rarer in Covid-19 sufferers, but it does not rule it out.
* Unfounded claim that the virus will die in temperatures above 27C (80F)
* Telling people that the new coronavirus “doesn’t infect children” – as one broadsheet columnist claimed on Twitter – may lead people to make potentially fatal decisions.
* An academic paper claimed the virus has been “genetically engineered” to pass between humans more efficiently
* the World Health Organization knew about Covid-19 years before the current outbreak
* mass cremations may be secretly taking place in Wuhan, based on “satellite images” that a bit of checking revealed weren’t satellite images at all ( see here: https://fullfact.org/health/satellites-wuhan-sulphur-dioxide-coronavirus/ )
Even here at FeaRepublic?
“My understanding is that the virus spreads via eye contact”
Yes, that’s one possible way. Another is from watching TV.
But on that latter one, it depends on what show you’re watching at the time.
The Guardian is one of the biggest propagators of misinformation and panic on the coronavirus.
This is the first “fact checking” article that is all fact. And from the Guardian!
Thanks for posting. My friends were circulating the bogus Stanford medical advice (runny nose and drinking water) email yesterday and everyone believed it. Which really could get someone killed.
The Guardian?
Does it say anything about whether it damages lung or breathing capacity tissue even for survivors?
I’ve heard that enough times, and TBH it’s really the only thing that worries me about it. If it wasn’t for that, I really wouldn’t make much effort at all to avoid public social contact.
TBH?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vaupcu2qqI&t=210s
Private Snafu, in “Rumors.”, 1944
Learn some things from the past, people.
RE: The Guardian?
Forget the name of ad-hominem on the paper, just check the facts.
To what extent does society have an obligation to protect the stupid from themselves?
And to what extent does that obligation extend to the individual?
Every day in the United States, 6,000-7,000 people die (over 2 million a year). In China, about 25,000 die every day (9 million a year). The great majority of those who die every year in both countries are older people. All before coronavirus.
Yet the media is busy creating panic over something that has so far infected under 2000 with under 50 dead in the US?
And with South Korea having managed to essentially stop it in its tracks at under 9,000 infections with under 100 dead?
TBH = to be honest
It’s just that I’ve never heard of The Guardian.
Are they a New York paper?
Physician heal thyself.
But I’ll offer one piece of unprofessional advice that definitely won’t hurt you (and may help you in other ways even if it has no effect on coronavirus:
Buy a humidity monitor for a few dollars on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GNMKYCZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If your house is less than 40% or so relative humidity, buy a nice humidifier:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0WOO74/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Plenty of studies show that the flu spreads more easily in low humidity.
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