By Alex Wandeba, Uganda.

A lot of false and malicious information continues to circulate across social media platforms by selfish individuals who want to create fear and panic amongst the population. Some of it is geared towards discrediting the efforts by health experts against COVID-19. This move by the social platforms is a thorn to the virtues of professional journalism because journalism is all about publishing verified facts and informed opinions.

Standing up to challenge media practitioners in the established independent media houses will ensure the highest levels of ethical standards all the time.in this era of social media and covid-19;  because the public relies on the mainstream media for guidance, confirmation, approval or disapproval of some of the misinformation that could be circulating online. 

In Uganda an incident was reported of a certain number of people who died from drinking toxic alcohol after claims circulated online that it could treat or ward of Covid-19.

It is unfortunate to note however that some mainstream media journalists also fail to raise to the required quality of facts in checking and verifying falsehoods and continue with the thread of misinformation.

 Apart from the social media individual influencers like a pastor in Uganda who told the media and his congregants that corona virus does not exist and what Africa is experiencing is the usual flu and fever which subside with time.

President Donald Trump is reported to have been the largest driver of misinformation during covid-19 pandemic. His advocacy of unproven treatment such as Hydroxychloquine prompted spikes in misinformation. More so that the pandemic is hoax that perpetuated for political gains. 

These arguments are responsible for a number of misfortunes such as relaxations in the observance of public health procedures against the pandemic and escalated cases including deaths.

Misinformation is just one challenge

Since infodermic has turned out to be a serious concern in fighting the pandemic, so what more can be done to debunk the popular myths and misinformation or Infodermic around COVID -19 by the journalists in the mainstream media?

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This blog entry was created in the RNTC course ‘Producing Media to Counter Disinformation’. You can also sign up for this course! Click here!