The Underrated Pandemic

The Underrated Pandemic

The novel coronavirus period has shown the world so many other things that people barely knew or just ignored. Among other things, another pandemic that had been underrated was unveiled: Fake news. (Un) fortunately, this disease, not treated in labs and medical rooms, was not that very much known. Due to the global pandemic, his company, Infodemic, also spread around the world. Some people came to take it more seriously, at least, not just in some parts of the world. There is, therefore, a shared responsibility to feed the world with healthy information.

A virus unveiled his elder kin.

Some wars don’t get enough attention until those who cry do it louder, louder enough to get to everyone’s ears in the remote milieus. Is it always because the fights are less worrying that they don’t get enough attention? Not necessarily. Oftentimes, we need the wind to intensify the turbine to finally realize that it was there. From Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China, a new virus outbreak was announced and it later spread all over the world and after less than 6 months, it is almost everywhere in the world. The World Health Organization later declared it a global health threat.

The world order was shaken.

So many things have changed in a so short time throughout the globe. Most countries have shut down many businesses which made some great economies shrink. Others have closed their airports and ground borders. Schools have been closed and where possible, people have opted for the online learning system. However, digital learning is not a global solution. How will millions of students in the developing world or in remote places where facilities like high-speed internet, electricity, and technology infrastructure access it as the ones in the big cities?

No one, at least a sports follower, can ignore how the world of sports has been affected. Stadiums are closed and now that some countries are trying to allow their championships to resume, strict measures have been taken. No fans on the pitches. Strangely enough, but better since people will be able to sit in front of their TV sets and enjoy their M10’s and Cr7’s incredible football skills. Health first, business, and entertainment after. We can all agree that safety and good health are of utmost importance. Right!

Fake news got attention.

But what about the other pandemics we barely hear about? I am not trying to claim its novelty because it was there a long time ago. The seemingly one pandemic everyone is worried about is just unveiling an underrated one: Fake News. The latter kills as well. It has been killing before COVID-19, it is killing now and making the novel virus worse. We're not talking because of the ongoing global health crisis, but we can all agree that verified and correct news is so expensive to find now because of so much cheap access to news sharing that has become available to everyone even without the right qualifications and goodwill to use it for the benefit of the community. Due to the rapid spread of false information amid the coronavirus era, the United Nations put the "infodemic" and the cybercrime in the same basket.

Fact-checking showed its worth.

During this pandemic time, a lot of falsehoods have been circulating. As some of these scams are prepared and sophisticated so that not everyone can know they are not true, a need for fact-checkers and data journalists grew faster. The World Health Organization Director-General announced that we’re not just fighting the pandemic, but an infodemic. We saw so many of the made-up stories being debunked and this effort saving lives that were at risk. Maybe we’ve heard of popular rumors like ginger and garlic can heal the virus, ‘the virus cannot survive the hot weather’, ‘taking a high dose of chloroquine medication can protect’, ‘President Putin has revealed a WHO conspiracy against African people’, ‘the US and China bribed President Rajoelina to poison the COVID-Organics’, youth immunity, and many more. A very big shout out to fact-checkers who were able to debunk them and save lives.

This digital age has made people's lives easier and cheaper, but also dangerous at the same time. The use of social media and online resources of information can be a unique bridge to information in a very short time and to a large number of individuals. However, it is sad that some people having financial abilities don’t have the required technical experience or will to research and spread information based on facts and contributing to the community level decision making. My experience in communications to an international and intercultural level taught me that disinformation can be worse than ignorance and the absence of information. There is, therefore, a global urge to fight misinformation together or we shall all bear the consequences.

There is a price to pay.

There are some actions that people can take to fight against the spread of fake news. While not everyone is spreading it, not doing something about it doesn’t help much either. People feeding their social media should not abuse the fact that sharing is not monitored and intensify this vague of rumors destroying the world. Double-checking the source of information and getting a deep investigation on the trusted sources can help a lot. In case of doubt, letting it down is wiser. Another action is that everyone should get themselves busy with the necessary work. No one should watch passively because doing something bad may be closer to not doing anything at all while you watch evil taking place. People should be data and fact-driven while they share what they didn’t author themselves.

Staying indoors or being restricted to mass gatherings are becoming new norms. This time should be taken seriously and used as wisely as possible. Instead of spending hours sharing unverified news, one can take some time to think. Thinking time is one of the treasures that are disappearing. People get overwhelmed with a lot of things going on around them and forget about their own selves. This is the best opportunity to sit down and try it out. After taking care of our families, getting quality time with oneself is a deal. The lonely time should include time for reading more books, watching and listening to more educative recordings, more spiritual exercise, and picking up a new language or a skill that may add some value to what we will be doing after this pandemic period. This is a time everyone should get out of it stronger, more performant, and wiser.

 Social media facilities should be well exploited to benefit society. While the information was so far away and hard to access decades ago, nowadays’ people have a chance to live an internet era. Social and digital media can do better and avail the news faster to information consumers. We should not abuse the fact that one can sit on his sofa at home and share information that will soon be watched by millions and get too lazy to document and make some investigation on the veracity of the piece of information we want to share. Doing so would help communities access some vital information that is credible in a faster and cheaper way.

All in all, the coronavirus pandemic lit a candle before us. We had fake news and so much misinformation going on without seeing its direct and indirect global negative impact on human lives. Now that we know how dangerous it can be, let’s encourage fact-based journalism and share information only when the sources are trustworthy. Getting ourselves busy with things that matter can also prevent us from sharing and consuming unverified information. The world should be alert and act together fighting against fake news as it is when it comes to terrorism, poverty, health crises because it was proven that rumors can also take people’s lives. We deserve a world where information is at the same time healthy, cheap, and constructive.

Cedrick Irakoze

Burundi

Author & Linguist doing Fact-checking, investigations, language work & Editing.

Cedrira94@gmail.com