Khin Maung Myint

A FEW days ago there was a very interesting piece in the GNLM daily that was related to inaccurate infodemics. It was titled “COVID-19 pandemic: countries urged to take stronger action to stop spread of harmful information”. Its source was quoted as the World Health Organization (WHO). It was the outcome of the webinar held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

Those involved in that webinar were the WHO, the UN, UNICEF, UNAIDS, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN Global Pulse initiative and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), together with the governments of Indonesia, Thailand and Uruguay.

Webinar is a seminar or other presentation that takes place on the Internet, allowing participants in different locations to see and hear the presenter, ask questions, and sometimes answer polls. It was a very thoughtful move to be taken by the organizations involved in formulating that initiative.

Today, with the ease and freedom of access to the social media, where restrictions or supervisions are very slack or in some cases non-existent, the threat and the dangers of the false informations or rumours are greatly undermining the governance, pandemic control endeavours, social integrity and national unity in most countries.

The WHO, in the said paper pointed out that as soon as the virus spread across the globe, inaccurate and even dangerous messages proliferated wildly over social media, leaving people confused, misled and ill-advised. The WHO gave warnings of the spread of misinformations and disinformations and advised the authorities to address those problems in time.

What is infodemic?

The Internet or the social media have provided opportunities for infodemics to become more rampant. Infodemic is a blend of information and epidemic. The Oxford dictionary defined it as: “An excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable, spreads rapidly, and makes a solution more difficult to achieve”.

The infodemics may be accurate, but mostly inaccurate. While the accurate informations about the pandemic are desirable, inaccurate ones could be detrimental and harmful to the public health and also undermine the management of the disease control, so they are despicable. Thus timely disseminations of the truths to counter them are urgently needed.

These days the social media, especially the Facebook, which most Myanmars used, are overwhelmed by inaccurate infodemics. Unscrupulous people are posting or sharing unconfirmed, uncredible and most outrageously falsified and faked news related to the COVID-19 pandemics.

The most harmful are the false informations about the disease and the alternative and herbal medicines purported to cure the disease. One example was that the leaves of the neem tree can be used to cure the disease.

This inaccurate infodemic emerged since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few neem trees along the routes where I used to go for my early morning walks were almost barren as they were plucked clean of leaves. In the street markets in Yangon, people scrambled to get hold of those leaves put on sale. Another misinformation was that, consuming betel quid can keep the coronavirus at bay and yet another was that turmeric can kill the coronavirus.

All these are false beliefs that have no concrete or scientific proof. There are many such examples of misinformations about the cures, which some desperate people fell for as they are either gullible, ignorant or have no access to the truth. While the authorities are instructing and urging the public to seek the help of the fever clinics if they suspect themselves of contracting the disease and not to secretly treat themselves at home, some young Myanmar doctors, locals and some from abroad are giving advices as to how this disease can be cured at home.

The worst are some patients who had recovered and got discharged from the hospitals are also freely giving advices about the disease on the Facebook. I don’t blame them if they only share their experiences about their stays at the hospitals, but they are overstepping by discussing matters that are beyond their field as though they were experts. In my opinion, most of them are doing for their popularity and some had even achieved to become online celebrities overnight. There are some people joining them in their live broadcasts and asking questions and requesting for advice. Such activities should be strictly put on hold.

The doctors who are advising people about treating themselves at home should be aware that the recent increases in the number of deaths were because those people didn’t report to the hospital in time. This can be deduced from the facts that most died immediately arrival or the next day after arriving at the hospitals. This also indicates that people tried to treat themselves at home until the last moment when they can no longer cope with the disease and went to the hospitals too late.

The reasons behind the infodemics There may be various reasons behind the spreading of infodemics, both accurate and inaccurate. However, if they are done with bad intentions they shouldn’t be allowed to carry on. Timely dissemination of the the true informations should be done to counter them with the truths. As the general elections are drawing near, some infodemics are becoming somewhat politically motivated too. Those are the worst types of infodemics.

Falsified informations about the pandemics should’t be used as a tool in the political play. Such politically motivated infodemics are false informations of the shortages of doctors and nurses, medicines, medical equipments, shoddy services at the quarantine facilities, and etc. Of course when the second wave struck, there was a sudden surge in the numbers of deaths, infected persons and those placed under facility quarantines, those may be true but they were rapidly corrected.

Although the authorities took rapid actions to correct those deficiencies in a very short period, that didn’t stop those who are always finding fault, from posting them on the social media as though they are still going on. Such things are disinformations aimed at discrediting the incumbent government. Also some irresponsible entrepreneurs are exploiting the pandemic to promote their businesses. One even made false claims that their product, an indigenous or traditional medicine can cure the COVID-19 infections.

This could be very misleading and dangerous. Some are citing the threats of the prevailing situations disguised as advices or warnings to stay home, in their advertisements to get their commodities sold or their services sought after. Misinformations and disinformations are putting health and lives at risk. They are also undermining trust in science, in the institutions and in the health systems as the WHO paper mentioned. Thus they should not be allowed to be circulating on the social media.

Drastic actions, such as timely dissemination of science-based informations must be carried out to prevent them from spreading. Besides the immediate impact on the pandemic responses, they are also undermining public trust in the democratic processes and the institutions and exacerbating social divides. Such things shouldn’t be allowed to go on.

Conclusion Allow me conclude this article by quoting the WHO paper: “To fight the pandemic we need trust and solidarity and when there is mistrust, there is much less solidarity. False information is hindering the response to the pandemic, so we must join forces to fight it and to promote science-based public health advice. The same principles that apply to responding to COVID-19 apply to managing the infodemic. We need to prevent, detect and respond to it, together and in solidarity”.