Did China cover-up the Covid-19 outbreak?

As the global effort to control Covid-19 continues so arguments about culpability for the spread of the pandemic intensify. At the centre of the story is China, where the outbreak began. Did the Chinese government’s impulse to cover up the truth cost the world dear? Or did China respond with admirable determination? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the veteran Chinese Ambassador in London Liu Xiaoming. Is China the villain or the hero of this pandemic?

View here (BBC, Youtube, April 29, 2020)

Bill Gates explains his plan to beat Covid-19

In an interview with Vox's editor-at-large Ezra Klein, Bill Gates covers a wide-ranging number of subjects on his interest and involvement in the prevention of pandemics; from history to the current issues of testing, treatments and vaccines, and from his current work to the conspiracy theories that surround it.

Read here (Vox, April 27, 2020)

‘Our correspondent’ on ‘Malaysia’s health czar under fire’: In an age of misinformation and half-truths, judging the authenticity of an online news publication has never been easy

‘News publication Asia Sentinel (AS) on Thursday (April 23) ran a contentious article on Health Ministry director-general (DG) Noor Hisham Abdullah under the headline “Malaysia’s health czar under fire” with a standfirst that read: “Critics charge mismanagement, authoritarian behaviour...’

This article questions the professionalism of the unnamed writer, pointing to doubts about his or her research, lack of first-hand sources and documents to support the story.

Read here (The Malaysianist, April 26, 2020)

Media freedom and fake news during the time of Covid-19

The likening of the fight against Covid-19 to a war should neither be a rationale for war-time measures, nor a free hand to muzzle the media and impinge on individual free speech. With new normals being expected, these normals must include a free media coupled with better protected free speech rights.

Read here (ISIS Malaysia, April 15, 2020)

A toxic ‘infodemic’: The viral spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories

‘Like other businesses impacted by the crisis, social media companies’ daily operations have also been upended by social distancing protocols. With content reviewers working from home, platforms are relying far more heavily on artificial intelligence technologies to flag and remove problematic content, which has already resulted in a wave of erroneous enforcement actions.

‘Another part of the problem seems to be a lack of high-level coordination, said Wardle, as certain virus-related posts have been banned on some platforms but permitted on others. “It’s a whack-a-mole approach,” she said, “and it’s nowhere near enough”.’

Read here (Huffington Post, April 8, 2020)

Why smart people believe coronavirus myths

From students to politicians, many smart people have fallen for dangerous lies spread about the new coronavirus. Why? And how can you protect yourself from misinformation? The following are some points from this story:

(1) ‘Truthy fakes’ within the information overload: “Purveyors of fake news can make their message feel ‘truthy’ through a few simple tricks, which discourages us from applying our critical thinking skills – such as checking the veracity of its source. As the authors of one paper put it: ‘When thoughts flow smoothly, people nod along’... ‘The simple presence of an image alongside a statement increases our trust in its accuracy – even if it is only tangentially related to the claim.’
(2) Repetition of a statement – whether the same text, or over multiple messages – can increase the “truthiness” by increasing feelings of familiarity, which we mistake for factual accuracy. So, the more often we see something in our news feed, the more likely we are to think that it’s true – even if we were originally sceptical.
 (3) ‘Cognitive miserliness’ (some of us possess substantial mental reserves, but don’t ‘spend’ them) renders us susceptible to many cognitive biases, and it also seems to change the way we consume information (and misinformation).

Matthew Stanley, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina: ‘...around 13% of US citizens believed this theory [that Covid-19 was a hoax], which could potentially discourage hygiene and social distancing... “We need more communications and strategy work to target those folks who are not as willing to be reflective and deliberative.”

Read here (BBC, April 6, 2020)

Checking the pandemic of Covid-19 misinformation and disinformation

“Advice on how to prevent, treat and cure COVID-19 has been shared in every corner of the globe. It often comes from  ‘doctors’ or ‘health experts’ and sometimes includes reasonable suggestions alongside nonsensical and harmful claims. It has fooled many smart, well-meaning people who have shared it with the best of intentions. There is currently no ‘cure’ for COVID-19.”

This AFP site allows us to check the misinformation that has spread regarding Covid-19.

Read here (AFP, continually updated, started March 28, 2020)

The analogy between Covid-19 and climate change is eerily precise

“We went through the stages of climate change denial in the matter of a week,” said Gordon Pennycook, a psychologist at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, who studies how misinformation spreads. Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science who has studied the origins of climate disinformation, spelled out the pattern in an email: “First, one denies the problem, then one denies its severity, and then one says it is too difficult or expensive to fix, and/or that the proposed solution threatens our freedom.”

Read here (Wired, March 25, 2020)