"Viral misinformation is spreading faster than the virus itself"

"Viral misinformation is spreading faster than the virus itself."  According to a study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, "researchers found 2,311 reports related to possible Covid-19 misinformation and of those reports, 89% were classified as rumors; 7.8% were conspiracy theories; and 3.5% were stigma."  

So the question becomes... how do we know what to believe and where should we find the most reliable sources of newsworthy information?

While many of the myths that went rampant on social media may today seem to lack any real believability, a few months ago, when the world was undergoing utter turmoil, these rumors may have gotten under many readers skin.  Whether it was that "poultry eggs are contaminated with coronavirus" or "drinking bleach may kill the virus," the average reader/viewer didn't know what to believe.  Some believe it was because of the absence of readily available information from the CDC or Coronavirus Task Force while others think its the idea that people now use social media sites, like Facebook, as newsworthy information sources.  Either way the abundance and spread of misinformation is believed to not only put people at higher risk, but also to make the doctors' jobs harder.  

A report published on August 19th explained that Facebook is "failing to keep people safe and informed."  Thankfully, there are people out there trying to counteract this misinformation and disinformation:

""Thanks to our global network of fact-checkers, from April to June, we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation and removed 7 million pieces of content that could lead to imminent harm," the statement said. "We've directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities and when someone tries to share a link about COVID-19, we show them a pop-up to connect them with credible health information.""

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/business/coronavirus-myths-social-media-doctors-trnd/index.html