Question

With the onset of COVID-19, people often had a hard time deciding what information was reliable. Some people said we have two pandemics: COVID-19 and a "misinformation pandemic". This is not a new problem. The concept of "fake news" was being discussed before this.

• If you hear someone making a claim (particularly about science), what makes you first trust or be suspicious of it?
• How do you go about checking the claim?
• What kinds of evidence do you thing strongly support a claim or make you even more suspicious of it?
• Can you give an example of a claim (particularly about science) that you thought was true that turned out not to be?

Answer 1

Any information which is received or heard if is similar to the actual problem or related to it when comparing makes one to first believe or trust on it. It can be also trusted if the information is released by the government or health department ,WHO.

It can make one suspicious if it is against the beliefs ,knowledge of the individual .If released in unauthorized social platforms.

The best way to check the claim is by going and checking in the organization website for it's genuineness or reliability .

The evidence which can support a claim are official press release ,said by the government officials,expert involvement eye witness , newspaper magazine release,report produced by health department

The evidence which can strongly support for suspicion are if the message is conveyed for money laundering

The use of COVIF 19 kit was highly appreciated, accepted and ordered by many countries for diagnosis of this deadly disease in their population .In order to identify and treat them at the earliest and control it. The reliability of the test result was later identified to be false positive for most individual .Which has lead to isolation and treatment at a cost.Initually it was trusted but it was not in later time.