HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Fake web news reports on the coronavirus (OT)

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 2/24/2020 5:35 PM (GMT 0)
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, as I'm certain that all of us are capable websearchers, and quite able to distinguish reliable fact sources from nonsense when acquiring web information.

But, as the first link below points out, there are many who subscribe uncritically to all sorts of web misinformation, conspiracy theories, etc., about any possible new threat.

That certainly includes this new coronavirus, of which the article gives some remarkable examples of the false, even absurd, information being circulated out there on it. (Such as, suggesting that the Chinese government has intentionally engineered it, and is unleashing it upon the world).

The article goes on to describe how the WHO (World Health Organization) is taking a leadership role in working to assert the dissemination of correct information on the virus, and offering helpful steps to improve world response to it.

Pursuant to this, the second link below is to a page on the WHO website that debunks a few current myths about the coronavirus.

Incidentally, of interest, from another article I found:

"... the most threatening virus in this country right now isn’t 2019-nCoV — it’s the flu. According to the CDC, there have already been up to 26 million cases of the flu this season, leading to hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions and up to 25,000 deaths. And this flu season has not been particularly severe."

Article:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/21/805287609/theres-a-flood-of-fake-news-about-coronavirus-and-a-plan-to-stop-it

WHO mythbuster page:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters

And there may be an even darker side to web misinformation. Report of a riot in Ukraine resulting from panic caused by a fake email about.this virus:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/coronavirus-ukraine-china
Posted 2/24/2020 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
So are you implying that it the "internet cures/preventions" that are fake news, or that the dangerous threat of a global pandemic is fake news? And that we should trust and believe the Chinese Government? Our annual seasonal flu has never threatened to become a pandemic. Even WHO has stated this threat from the Coronavirus could become pandemic.

The site, linked below, runs lots of conspiracy theories, but this article seems legit:

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/coronavirus-panic-goes-global-skorea-warns-watershed-moment-italy-quarantines-12-towns

Post Edited (manich) : 2/24/2020 10:58:52 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/24/2020 6:04 PM (GMT 0)
Seven billion people with little or no slow down in population growth in sight. There WILL be a culling back at some point by some means. There are many "disaster" candidates, but a microbe is high on the list. It won't be the Corona virus, but it's a useful reminder how quickly things can get out of control.
Posted 2/24/2020 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
The point I hoped I would be making with this thread is that misinformation on the web is a very dangerous thing. It can even lead to violence, as I hope my last link showed, and it can lead people down possibly harmful paths, if they consume it.

Many websites, and possibly the one you cite, manich, do get it right, and that's great. But bad facts can spread like wildfire, and that's not a very good thing if lives are at stake due to a possible pandemic, and bad facts are blinding people to that.

No, I'm not denying that a pandemic is possible, no, I'm not saying that we can or can not trust some government, but at the same time I'm also saying that I don't want to see some person rubbing something on his skin in a useless effort to stop a virus, just because he has been deceived by reading on the Internet that it would work.

If I could have one wish, it would be that all Internet information would be 100% correct. A foolish wish, I know. But what a difference it would make!

Accurate information is worth the price of gold and jewels.

Not to make light of this discussion, but I'm reminded of the observation attributed to Wyatt Earp:

"Speed is good, but accuracy is everything."

How right he was!

THAT was the point I was trying to make!
Posted 2/24/2020 6:33 PM (GMT 0)
Off topic sort of on topic,
What I don't like about current FLU shots is that they are not for the current FLUs. They are typically for last season's FLU.
This time around I don't know who to believe. Do you believe the Chinese (Red)? I mean they haven't exactly been known for telling the truth. NOTE: Tienimen square.
Or do you believe the press, and which press is it that you try to explore the truth with? The left or the right?

Note: To mattam's comment about an eventual culling out. Yes sir, I do believe that as there are plenty of folks that have no problem cutting back the world's population to 500,000,000 or so.
Mostly extreme environmentalists.
To these people I say, you first.
Posted 2/24/2020 6:40 PM (GMT 0)
we're all going to die.
Posted 2/24/2020 6:41 PM (GMT 0)

alephnull said...
Off topic sort of on topic,
What I don't like about current FLU shots is that they are not for the current FLUs. They are typically for last season's FLU....

The flu vaccine has to be prepared well in advance of flu season. My understanding is that it is usually based on part of the prevalent strains of the current (i.e., previous) season plus some "educating guessing," about the likely type(s) (A, B, C, and/or D), a sampling of what's in circulation and the location(s), all done as late possible. I seem to remember recently seeing that this year's shot cuts the risk of flu by about 50%.

Djin
Posted 2/24/2020 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
The most accurate COVAD-19 information can be found from the experts at cdc.gov and who.int
An example of inexpert handling of the virus was the debacle on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

about flu vaccines, let us not speak. That issue has been chased around the block too many times on this forum.

If you believe in conspiracy theories, you're on your own and will get no support for your views from me.
Posted 2/24/2020 8:02 PM (GMT 0)
I'm heading off the deep end now, so.

Yosemite Sam "My biscuits are burning, my biscuits are burning!"

I'm beginning to adopt Logos philosophy.
I'll die when I die, but until I do, I'll live and enjoy life.
Forgive me Logo, if I captured you inaccurately.
Posted 2/24/2020 8:33 PM (GMT 0)

mattam said...
Seven billion people with little or no slow down in population growth in sight. There WILL be a culling back at some point by some means. There are many "disaster" candidates, but a microbe is high on the list. It won't be the Corona virus, but it's a useful reminder how quickly things can get out of control.

true. we are fat and low-hanging. something will take us out. I watched Train to Busan last night and the last thing they were expecting was zombies
Posted 2/24/2020 9:53 PM (GMT 0)

F8 said...
... I watched Train to Busan last night and the last thing they were expecting was zombies

OMG, the virus creates zombies?!? We're really doomed ...
Posted 2/24/2020 10:07 PM (GMT 0)
Right now in China literally 10’s of millions of people are being forced to stay in their homes.

Thats real.

Thats alot of people.

They are bring asked to stay home for some reason.

At the very least there are going to be economic consequences as many many supply chains will be at least temporarily disrupted.
Posted 2/24/2020 10:40 PM (GMT 0)
Best legit info I've seen on COVID-19 has been from Dr. John Campell, a teaching doctor from the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/user/campbellteaching/featured
Posted 2/24/2020 10:59 PM (GMT 0)

Buddy Blank said...
Best legit info I've seen on COVID-19 has been from Dr. John Campell, a teaching doctor from the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/user/campbellteaching/featured

Give us three scientific reasons why one doctor on a YouTube channel is more legit than the world infectious disease specialists at the CDC and WHO
Posted 2/25/2020 12:09 AM (GMT 0)
1. He's got Dr. in his name.
2. He's from the UK.
3. He has a Youtube channel.
Posted 2/25/2020 1:28 AM (GMT 0)

Tim G said...

Give us three scientific reasons why one doctor on a YouTube channel is more legit than the world infectious disease specialists at the CDC and WHO


The WHO believes what China is telling them. They lose me right there.

Post Edited (manich) : 2/24/2020 9:30:26 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/25/2020 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
Good thing the world is flat and tilted toward China.... Shhhh
Posted 2/25/2020 2:02 AM (GMT 0)
It IS true that China is pretty well shut down. My company sells into the China markets--our sales manager in Shanghai has been working from home for the last 3-4 weeks, and is only allowed out of his apartment for things like trips to buy food--and it's only for short times, rarely. Pretty much all trade in and out of China is disrupted--nobody is unloading ships or airplanes, no payments are being made. It's insane--and it's a VERY BIG DEAL.

If it makes it here in a big way--and it could--it won't be a laughing matter.
Posted 2/25/2020 2:06 AM (GMT 0)
The entire entire pandemic response chain of command was fired by the president in 2018 and never replaced. But not to fear: Ken Cuccinelli was just named to head our Corona Virus effort.

Djin
Posted 2/25/2020 2:25 AM (GMT 0)
I am thinking more about the zombie now... seems more reasonable than politics and will not get the thread locked.
Posted 2/25/2020 2:30 AM (GMT 0)
As Halbert said, we too deal with China and the supply chain is starting to brake. China supplies the world with both finished goods and parts. You may need 100 pieces to build X and if one part is from China the whole thing stops..... But, If there is one country that would/could actually force workers to keep producing its China.
Posted 2/25/2020 2:30 AM (GMT 0)
81--I should have known better than to respond to this thread. I'm done here .
Posted 2/25/2020 3:03 AM (GMT 0)
I can tell you this much. I am going for my radiation planning tomorrow, and then I am supposed to then start 7 weeks 5 days a week trips there.

I dont want anything to get in the way of zapping the critters.
Posted 2/25/2020 3:30 AM (GMT 0)
Tim G - Don't feel bad. In a discussion about something as far-reaching as a fast-spreading, possibly dangerous, pandemic, it was probably inevitable that questions would be raised about governments and their respective abilities to control the situation.

But, yes, forum rules are forum rules, so an avoidance of politically oriented observations is in order.

But it would seem to me that a number of the posts made so far are emphasizing, directly or subtly, the thread's premise, that accurate information is and will be the thing most needed to make the decisions needed to get the better of this thing.

We've all seen the sci-fi movies where the world, or New York City, or something, is fatally threatened by some monster, OR DISEASE, until a group of brilliant scientists at the last minute comes up with an ingenious strategy that solves the problem and wins the day.

But this is no movie, this is the real thing. But maybe life really can actually imitate art regarding this virus, and real-life scientists out there, perhaps at work right now, will be like their movie counterparts, and come up with some ingenious solution that saves us all.

But if this does happen, it will happen because those scientists had accurate information at their disposal.
Posted 2/25/2020 5:07 AM (GMT 0)
81--The problem is that there are still people out there who believe the modern equivalents of "the world is flat" and "the earth is the center of the solar system"
Add to that the conspiracy theorists, the anti-science crowd, and the "one guy's opinion is just as good as another's" relativists, and you've got a problem, Houston.

None of this, of course, applies to participants in this thread.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply