Fake News amidst COVID-19 — A Deadly Combination for Struggling Indians
Two days ago, my mother forwarded a video of a sage preaching to his followers about measures to prevent COVID-19 infection. And yesterday, another forward from a friend where an aunty claimed to cure COVID-19 by drinking her traditional herbal tea. We have sages and aunties who can prevent and cure COVID-19, and the world took almost a year to make vaccines that’s not even 100% efficient?
The sage’s solution was an alum stone aka ‘Phitkari.’ An ancient stone used to cure external injuries and, more recently, a shaving nick at your local Indian salon. The stone does have healing properties. The minerals act as an astringent to restrict blood vessels from bleeding, kills bacteria and can be used to treat water, among various other uses.
The sage asked his followers to mix an alum stone in half a glass of water and consume it after every meal. He failed to mention that the stone can cause irritation, choke, and block windpipe if not consumed in restricted quantity.
“We’ve been burning incense sticks 24x7 to kill the airborne viruses,” said Mr. Rawat. Advised by his spiritual mentor, Mr. Rawat, a software engineer with a reputed IT firm, has been burning incense for the last two weeks without realizing the long-term effects of smoke inhalation.
Many such home remedies are doing rounds over the internet; everyone claims to have broken the code, found the miracle cure for, or prevention from COVID-19. But none have stepped up to seek ICMR’s support to validate their claims. Some are sharing prescriptions advising individuals with symptoms to consume certain medicines to cure themselves.
None of them will be held accountable for the lives lost due to incorrect care and medical support. Because we can never hold them or the social media platforms accountable. These are information shared by random social media users or influencers on topics they have little knowledge on, with educated users like us, who choose to act on it. The critical element missing from social media or the internet is — accountability.
There is more fake news on the internet than real news, and it is virtually impossible to distinguish them. Tech giants who own these social media platforms spend millions, if not billions, to tackle fake news. Relying on state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and thousands of humans reviewing contents to tackle the fake news pandemic has shown progress but has not been a great success yet.
What I initially thought was a risk for baby boomers who trust every piece of media shared with them turned out to be a risk for us all. The individuals creating fake news content are not the biggest culprits here — it’s us.
It’s people like you and me who forward these contents to unsuspecting family members and friends, for whom we are a trusted source. Until we decide to take a stand and stop blindly believing and forwarding what we read on the internet, not a lot will change.
We will still receive hundreds of forwards from our moms, dads, friends, or long-lost cousins, and we will continue to believe that it’s not COVID-19 that’s killing people. It’s 5G radiation (sarcasm intended).
Maybe and just maybe, one of these days, someone will win the Coca-Cola lottery that’s doing rounds for the last two decades.
This article is based on my thoughts on the ongoing pandemic and fake media forwards and only for informational purposes. It should not be considered otherwise. Consult a medical professional if you want guidance on how to combat or cure COVID-19 or any medical conditions.
