Practical strategies that you could abide by to prevent yourself from spreading fake news about a life threatening disease such as Covid -19
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In the present-day digital world, it is challenging to function comprehensively, given our increasing reliance on the internet, which has touched every aspect of our lives, including healthcare. We are constantly inundated by false information, including medical information—purposefully deployed—that spreads so quickly and persuades so effectively.1 Some of this online health information includes interactive websites, internet-based games, online health press rooms, disease symptoms simulations, opinion polls, Twitter feeds, and doctor–patient online consultations.2–5 The professional and personal blogs, podcasts, chat rooms and forums are hallmarks of today’s medical care and a prominent source of health information among different kind of audiences, including the present group of general practitioners.
Hence, there is an ever-increasing need to check and evaluate data sources, particularly news items related to health and disease. It is imperative that online communities on social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, are aware of the authenticity of posted materials.6 Some of the vivid examples of this widespread dissemination of ‘fake news’ claim statements such as ‘birth control makes women unattractive and crazy’3 or ‘curing cancer using carrots’.7
In September 2017, a website called eternally.com, registered in Phoenix, Arizona, published an article with the headline ‘Dandelion weed can boost your immune system and cure cancer’. It was the most popular article on Facebook with the word ‘cancer’ in the headline last year, receiving more than 1.4 million shares, likes and comments, according to two separate web analysis tools. This potent root has no clinical evidence to support its miraculous characteristics.4 A PEW Foundation survey in 2013 in the USA revealed that 6 out of 10 Americans go online to find the cause for their medical condition.1 Of those who found a diagnosis online, 35% of respondents said they did not follow this up with a visit to a professional medical provider. The online medical advice can reinforce inaccurate views or biases, particularly when lay people follow online bloggers with false and inauthentic health-promoting or disease-alleviating claims.2 The Food and Drug Administration in the past decade issued 90 warning letters to companies for producing products claiming to cure cancer.