On Friday, a good friend of mine sent me some viral information, purportedly from Stanford University about how to self-diagnose COVID-19, prevent it and kill it. I was suspicious immediately.

First, it was rife with comma abuse, awkward phrasing and spelling mistakes and it made really outrageous claims.

Serious excellent advice by Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases, it declared. Now, thats some seriously terrible phraseology.

The post claims that if you drink water every 15 minutes, the virus will go down through your throat and into the stomach. Once there, your stomach acid will kill all the virus. If you dont drink enough water regularly, the virus can enter your windpipe and then the lungs. Thats very dangerous.

If it were that simple, would there be a pandemic now killing thousands of people, closing down professional sporting events, emptying schools, turning bustling cities into ghost towns and affecting the entire worlds economy?

A quick Google search showed that the Info from Stanford University was fake.

Misinformation about COVID-19 is potentially dangerous as it can give people a false sense of security or it might entice them to spend their money on false cures that at best do nothing good and at worst do damage.

A medical worker checks the temperature of a visitor at the city hall in Kiev on Friday.SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images

It seems that as fast as the coronavirus spreads, so too does misinformation.

Fake news is rampant in the U.S. as its been coming straight from the top.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been commander-in-chief of coronavirus misinformation to the American public for weeks until Friday. Thats when he declared it a national emergency.

As one of my newsroom colleagues quipped: Trump finally understood the gravity of the situation after he learned that the Masters had been suspended.

The amount of misleading, made up and outright lies being spread like germ warfare by Trump has been astonishing and disturbing.

On Feb. 28, for instance, Trump said that coronavirus will disappear like a miracle while speaking at a media conference for his coronavirus task force. The following week he told reporters that the coronavirus will go away. He also speculated that warm weather would kill the virus and stop its spread. Experts have debunked all of those claims, saying that while some illnesses like the seasonal flu do decline in warmer weather, there is no evidence COVID-19 will diminish in the spring or summer.

Again on Feb. 28, during one of his rambling speeches to his base in South Carolina, Trump likened the Democrats criticism of his administrations response to the coronavirus to their attempts to impeach him, saying this is their new hoax.During that speech he also downplayed the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.

Astonishingly, during a press conference last week in Atlanta about COVID-19, Trump said that he didnt know people died of the flu. According to Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, his grandfather died of the flu in 1918. How can someone reach the age of 73, never mind the most powerful office in the world, and not know such widely understood facts?

U.S. President Donald Trump stands with members of his coronavirus task force as he declares the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency in Washington on Friday.JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS

Others are trying to profit off of the misinformation.

On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James was forced to order radio host Alex Jones to immediately cease and desist selling and marketing products as a treatment or cure for the coronavirus.

Alex Jones through his website http://www.InfoWarsStores.com has been marketing and selling toothpaste, dietary supplements, creams, and several other products as treatments to prevent and cure the coronavirus. Jones fraudulently claims that these products are a stopgate against the virus and that the United States government has said his Superblue Toothpaste kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range.

Mr. Jones public platform has not only given him a microphone to shout inflammatory rhetoric, but his latest mistruths are incredibly dangerous and pose a serious threat to the public, James added.

Other things are putting the populace at risk too. People who are hoarding bottles of hand sanitizer, face masks and other personal protective items are bad enough. Those who then go online to sell the products for grotesque profits feeding on the fears of vulnerable people are truly disgraceful.

So, here are some facts: There is no cure for COVID-19. A vaccine has not been created yet and wont be for some time. If someone claims to have a cure and it costs money, dont believe them. They are charlatans trying to enrich themselves on your fear.

This is how you can avoid catching the virus: wash your hands frequently; dont touch your face; avoid crowds; try to keep a social distance from people if you must be in a crowd; dont travel overseas unless its absolutely necessary; if you sneeze or cough, do so into the crook of your elbow or into a tissue and then throw it away in a bag-lined garbage pail.

If you fear that you may have the virus, it is recommended by health authorities that you do NOT go to the emergency department or even your doctors office as you could spread the disease.

If you have the symptoms of COVID-19 fever, cough, difficulty breathing Alberta Health recommends you call HealthLink at 811. Your symptoms will be assessed and triaged and, in the Calgary or Edmonton areas, if they think you need to be tested you will be directed to an assessment centre. In other parts of the province, someone may come to your home to do a swabbing. You may have to wait a bit on the line as call volumes are high.

Reach out to your elderly neighbours, give them your cellphone number if they dont already have it, and let them know that you are available to help them.

Dont spread the virus and, just as importantly, dont spread misinformation about the virus. Some vulnerable persons life could depend on it.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary. lcorbella@postmedia.com

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Corbella: Don't spread the virus or fake news - Calgary Sun