Seeing a lot of fake news?
A new study observes that the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an “overabundance of information.”
It’s called an “infodemic.”
As researchers with Statistics Canada noted, this makes it “very difficult for people to find facts and reliable sources.”
And that is dangerous.
“Misinformation in the context of COVID-19 can endanger the population’s health, especially if the news that spreads is about false prevention measures or treatments, or if it undermines the population’s trust in health services and public or political institutions,” according to Karine Garneau and Clémence Zossou.
Garneau and Zossou wrote the paper Misinformation During The COVID-19 Pandemic, which was released by Statistics Canada on February 2.