Welcome TO YOUR FAKE NEWS NIGHTMARE
COVID-19 turns sufferers into zombies. Ice cream and milkshakes prevent the spread of the disease. Hot peppers offer a cure. So, too, does inhaling the hot air from a hair dryer. In the midst of a global contagion, the world has also been inundated with a viral onslaught of fake news. At a time when there has never been a higher premium on accurate information, the internet has been flooded with dangerous misinformation. Along with the pandemic, we have been besieged by an “infodemic”.
The scourge of fake news has become destructive and even deadly. In Britain, more than 70 phone masts were vandalised following rumours on the internet that the new 5G mobile network acted as a superspreader and weakened the body’s immune system – bogus claims that are biologically impossible. In Iran, at least 800 people died from alcohol poisoning, having been told it was a miracle cure. In one horrific instance, parents gave their five-year-old child illegal alcohol, which caused him to go blind.
Small wonder that the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom, felt the need to issue a blunt warning: “Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous.” The WHO quickly added a Mythbusters section to its website, warning, among other things, that sprinkling pepper in soup does not offer a cure; nor does drinking methanol or bleach.
