They say viruses metamorph; this is how you get strains of the same parent virus. Well, in our experience, misinformation often evolves over some time. Right now, we are and have been talking COVID-19, but what have we noticed? Like the virus SARS, the infodermic that precedes begot four waves or strains of falsehoods. Dubawa did her best to debunk most of them; but, our efforts would be futile if we don\u2019t learn from the past. What\u2019s the common saying? \u201cThose who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is funny to think the first string<\/a> of what are now COVID-19 cases began in November 2019. Most people think the novel coronavirus broke out in 2020. It is perhaps this sad unbothered deflective \u201cit\u2019s their business\u201d mindset that has gotten us where we are today. In truth, most people thought and still think it was a China thing; it does not concern us. The President of the United States portrayed this rationale<\/a> in what CNN termed a \u201cscape-goating<\/a>\u201d oval office speech; a speech that was reminiscent of finger-pointing and blame. After all, when asked about the virus, the US President deemed it not as worrisome as the flu<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This pattern of downplaying the novel virus trickled down globally. It was either downplaying its potential for worrisomeness or just denying its existence. We noted the former when\u00a0Ibrahim Magu<\/a>\u00a0suggested corruption was \u201cworse than all these viruses.\u201d And concerning deflection, Dubawa started seeing posts that asserted\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s immunity to this virus<\/a>. It was not just Nigeria, fact-checkers noted it in other locales; so much so, Poynter published an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0saying no race,\u00a0religion<\/a>\u00a0or tribe was more vulnerable or immune to the virus. Yes, not even the\u00a0Nigerian heat<\/a>\u00a0could slow it down.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty soon, people understood the destructive potential of the novel coronavirus. The idea that it just might be here for the long haul started to sink in. Thus commenced the era of the fake cures<\/a>. Enter scene, garlic<\/a>, cocaine<\/a>, salt<\/a> and sex<\/a>! Lest we forget, Chloroquine<\/a>, we cannot forget Chloroquine<\/a>. While most Nigerians had come to understand the menace, COVID-19, others\u2019 actions suggested they were still in denial. In truth, most falsehoods stemmed from the belief of the superiority in herbal medicine. It was as if to say this \u201cforeign disease cannot touch us when we got our garlic, ginger and salt\u201d. This rationale holds as several reports and interviews showed this to be the rationale for grassroots indigenes. Other trends involved misleading <\/a>content on vaccine research<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subsequently, Dubawa noticed a slight shift in tactic. Rather than just outrightly misleading people, purveyors of misinformation kickstarted a sub-era of false attributions. It would seem these lot discovered the power in a would-be credible source. Hence, in a bid to sound authentic, they used meme generators, usurping<\/a> notable broadcast platforms<\/a>. In other instances, they would blatantly<\/a> attribute falsehoods to prominent figures<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At this juncture, Nigeria had her first index case, and the numbers were rising; so much so, some prominent officeholders tested positive for the virus. Thus, the trend evolved into a game of \u201cwho\u2019s got it and who\u2019s hiding?\u201dOne news publication<\/a> asserted that 15 house of representative members tested positive with COVID-19; this was false<\/a>. Shortly after, one blog site<\/a> dropped a pretty heavy conjecture- Yahaya Bello tested positive to the novel virus- to which the Governor vehemently rebuffed<\/a>. Then on Thursday, March 26, a WhatsApp audio message<\/a> claiming Buhari and his Chief of Staff both positive with CV fled the country for treatment<\/a>; this again was a baseless supposition as sources in the presidency debunked it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You know the saying, save the best for last, well we kept the worst for last. This category of covinfodemic is not “misleading content”; no, it is deceptive content. This strain features supposition with a potential for harm. We recall the viral post suggesting that China was seeking approval for mass murder<\/a>; such claims fall squarely under this strain. This strain\u2019s slightly less hazardous half are click-bait content. It seems some sites aim at capitalizing on this pandemic; giving out information to reroute traffic to their website. Yes you, Fake Netflix Account<\/a>, we are talking to you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The metamorphosis of coronavirus-related falsehoods since its genesis… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[435],"tags":[810,562,726,115,836,347,835,834,486,642,824],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[864],"class_list":["post-4592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-chloroquine","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-fact-check","tag-falsehood","tag-featured","tag-flu","tag-infodermic","tag-misinformation","tag-novel-coronavirus","tag-vaccine"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-1c4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":864,"user_id":49,"is_guest":0,"slug":"victorndukwe","display_name":"Victor Ndukwe","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed81ff59ad14b930ce873dd6e620482eecaa0320bb5d9329a5d31cedb97278b?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"http:\/\/vicfitco.wordpress.com","last_name":"Ndukwe","first_name":"Victor","job_title":"","description":"Victor Ndukwe is a first-class honours graduate in Architectural Design Technology from the University of Wolverhampton. He was an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists; and a STEM Ambassador. Additionally, he manages a health-fitness centred blog. His varied work experience gives him a unique perspective in the literary field; having worked in construction, Information Technology and conducted extensive research in various fields.\r\n\r\nHe now utilizes this skill set in the field of fact-checking; aiding colleagues and teammates with research and editorial work."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/w1240-p16x9-2020-02-18t165543z_3818534_rc243f9hlmwh_rtrmadp_3_china-health.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The era of fake prevention, cures & false attributions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Downright political<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Clickbaitery & malicious intent<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n