Monthly Archives: March 2020

Facebook started marking some posts linking to information and articles about the coronavirus and COVID-19 as spam, as observed by one Verge reporter and many users on Twitter on Tuesday evening.

The issue was due to a bug in an anti-spam system, according to Guy Rosen, Facebooks vice president of integrity. Rosen said the company began working on a fix as soon as discovering the issue.

Here are a few examples of affected Facebook posts:

Following publication of The Verges report, Rosen said Facebook had resolved the issue and restored the affected posts. Weve restored all the posts that were incorrectly removed, which included posts on all topics not just those related to COVID-19, Rosen explained. According to Facebook, the issue was with an automated moderation tool and was not related to any changes to its moderator workforce.

The company previously announced that it would remove false claims and conspiracy theories about coronavirus in January. Facebook also joined Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube in publishing a joint statement yesterday committing to fighting coronavirus-related fraud and misinformation.

A new report published by Ranking Digital Rights argued on Tuesday that Facebooks current approach to moderation may not be able to address the issue of coronavirus-related misinformation on its platform.

Update March 17th, 8:07PM ET: Added context from Facebook.

Update March 17th, 9:52PM ET: Added additional context from Facebook and clarification that the company has resolved the issue. The headline has been updated to reflect this.

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Facebook was marking legitimate news articles about the coronavirus as spam due to a software bug - The Verge

Check out USA TODAY's Facebook Live Q&A series about the coronavirus. Topics include what to do if you feel sick and what protections do workers have. USA TODAY

Fans were so eager to see Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood together in a Facebook Live concert Monday night that the overloaded site crashed again and again. And again.

"Garth, did you break the internet?" was the frequent fan commentamid the breakdowns, as 3.4 million viewers tuned in.

For the patient, and those able to reload the page, the stuck-at-home-casual husband-and-wife team gave an emotional, soulful"Inside Studio G" concert for fans watching from their own homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're all in this together," Brooks said, after tearfullywatching Yearwood sing a resonant"Amazing Grace."

Here are the high points of the hour-long home concert:

Coronavirus: All the concerts and events that have been canceled

Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks gave a Facebook Live concert.(Photo: Garth Brooks/Inside Studio G.)

This was down-home casual. Brooks sported scruffy facial hair, a cap and a Detroit Mercy Lacrosse hoodie sweatshirtwhileYearwood worea Nashville Predators hockey shirt and occasionally threw on her reading glasses. At one point between songs, Yearwood reached over and removed some "fuzz"from her husband's beard.

"I got you," she said.

Brooks made it clear he's been suffering from cabin fever as the national call to stay at home continues. After one guitar riff, a smiling Brooks declared, "I need this worse than anybody."

There's a silver lining to being at home.

"You get to play your guitar walking around your home because got nothing to do," Brooks said.

Brooks called out for requests and his legion of fans obliged, some 50,000 requests, most far out of the usual songbook. "Whiskey To Wine" and "Thicker Than Blood" ruled,but the duo gamely took on George Jones and Tammy Wynette's "Golden Rings" and the Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga song "Shallow." Theycrackedup at parts, but nailedthe "Shallow" harmony.

"OK, no more requests," Brooks said with a smile after the song ended. But they followed that up with a perfectly suited version of Ed Sheeran's "Perfect." Songs like "Hallelujah" and Yearwood's vocals "Amazing Grace" took on deeper meaning.

Trisha Yearwood performs at The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize tribute concert at DAR Constitution Hall on March 4, 2020, in Washington.(Photo: Shannon Finney, Getty Images)

Even Brooks was visibly surprised when Yearwood asked to take hisguitar out for a spin.

"I wanna play. Do not panic," she said, helpingthe instrument from her husband's neck.

"I've never seen you play," said Brooks.

"You'll see why I quit playing," she said to the unseen audience."Just love me. This is all about community, it's notabout being perfect."

Yearwood then hit a plaintive version of Linda Rondstadt's "Long, Long Time" that had Brooks (again) getting tearful.

Yearwood started out her career performing studio demos with the rising singer-songwriter Brooks. As the two bantered about the early days, Yearwood started mentioning all the songs that Brooks pitchedto have her record, only to take them back and record himself.

"You gave me a lot of songs that you took back," she said. "That's alright, I'm over it."

"I didn't know we were going to go there on this one," said Brooks.

Yearwood didn't blink, starting to listthem off: Thunder Rolls," Victim of the Game," Shameless.

"You pitched me 'Shameless'," said Yearwood of the 1991 Brooks hitonwhich she ended up singing harmony vocals. "This is therapy for us."

Y

Brooks started the concert not quite sure if his guitar-playing fingers could take a half-hour concert. At the end of an hour, he had to be told by his off-camera handlers that the two were close to going on beyond the booked time.

"This thing flew by. I have overstayed my welcome," said a surprised Brooks.

The two bade the fans goodnight with Brooks' parting words. "Everyone love one another."

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'We're all in this together': Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood home concert crashes Facebook Live - USA TODAY

The #CanadaPerforms livestream series launched last week by the National Arts Centre and Facebook Canada is proving to be a runaway hit, attracting more than 2,800 applications from artists, hundreds of thousands of viewers and an additional $100,000 donation from Slaight Music.

Thursdays kickoff concert by Jim Cuddy and friends drew about 10,000 viewers as it streamed from his Toronto studio, and thousands more watched it later. By Monday, it had been viewed more than 600,000 times, a phenomenal number for a video from Canada, said Facebook Canadas head of public policy, Kevin Chan, who came up with the idea to partner with the NAC on the artists fund.

We saw the very acute pain that was going to affect the performing arts community very quickly, Chan said, noting that 24 million Canadians use Facebook. It was clear that artists were no longer going to be able to count on the tours and performances they had already booked.

Then we saw a very interesting thing happen, which was artists spontaneously, almost on their own, turning to online platforms to start performing for free. People wanted to see that sort of thing, and for us, it was important to find a way to support that.

Facebook Canada provided the $100,000 in funding to get started, and the NAC is administering the money. Artists in any discipline can apply by email for a $1,000 grant to support a 45- to 60-minute livestream.

The program received more than 1,400 applications in the first 24 hours, including submissions from comedians, dancers, storytellers and a wide variety of musicians.

Cuddy, New Brunswick francophone artist Lisa LeBlanc and Hamilton-based folk-rockers Whitehorse were among the 14 artists to livestream concerts over the weekend, while the Ottawa music scene was represented by singer-songwriter Rita Carter and francophone rocker Mehdi Cayenne. Upcoming #CanadaPresents livestreamers include Jenn Grant, Serena Ryder, Catherine McLellan, Colin Linden and more.

Over the weekend, Slaight Music, a Canadian talent-development organization, doubled the funds available with its $100,000 donation, which is likely to extend the program beyond the original deadline of March 31.

We are proud to be partnering with Facebook and the NAC on this creative relief initiative to help musicians share their talents during these challenging times, said Slaight Music president Derrick Ross in a statement.

Meanwhile, musicians from the National Arts Centre Orchestra are also getting in on the Facebook action by pre-recording solo performances that will be posted at noon each day. The first Lunch Break on Monday featured violinist Jeremy Mastrangelo playing Gavotte en Rondeau from Bachs 3rd partita for solo violin in E-major.

Performances later in the week will come from cellist Rachel Mercer and violinist Frdric Moisan.

Orchestra subscribers can also look forward to a weekly Home Delivery email from maestro Alexander Shelley highlighting past NACO concerts with a curated playlist.

Go to nac-cna.ca for more information on livestream performances and how to apply for a #CanadaPerforms short-term relief grant.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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NAC-Facebook livestream initiative gets another $100K to help artists - Ottawa Citizen

Facebook on Tuesday told employees that it would give each of them $1,000 bonuses in an effort to support its workforceworking remotely as they wait out the coronavirus pandemic, the company told CNBC.

The Information first reported that Facebook would offer the bonuses to employees.

The announcement was made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an internal note to employees.

Facebook employs nearly 45,000 full-time workers, according to a January financial filing, but it also employs several thousands more contract workers. It is unclear if those contractors will also receive a bonus. Facebook isn't the only tech company providing cash bonuses to workers. Workday announced Monday it would pay cash bonuses worth two weeks of pay to its employees.

Facebook on Tuesday also announced a $100 million program to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19. The program will provide up to 30,000 eligible small business with "cash grants and ad credits to help during this challenging time."

The coronavirus has already had a massive impact on the company. Shares of the company are down more than 28% year-to-date as uncertainties around coronavirus drag down the markets.

On Feb. 27,Facebook canceled its F8 annual software developers conference. In early March, Facebookbegan telling its employees to work from homeand pulled out other conferences. Earlier this month, Facebooktemporarily ban ads and listings for medical face masks.

Around the world, there are more than 183,000 cases of the coronavirus with at least 7,167, according to Johns Hopkins University. In the U.S., there are at least 4,661 cases, and there have been at least 85 deaths, according to Johnson Hopkins University.

Link:

Facebook to give $1,000 bonuses to each of its employees to deal with coronavirus fallout - CNBC

Even though schools are closed for the time being, WFAAs WeatherMinds is here to help your kids continue their science education.

Pete Delkus and the entire weather team will be hosting Weatherminds sessions in the coming weeks.

Join us to learn something new about weather every Tuesday and Thursday at 1 p.m. over the next few weeks on the WFAA Facebook page.

Like the WFAA Facebook page so you don't miss out on any of these streams!

Keeping kids at home during the coronavirus outbreak isn't easy. These moms are here to help.

Stuck inside your home? Here are some things to do with your kids besides looking at a screen

Watch animal livestreams while social distancing during coronavirus pandemic

These kid-friendly live-streams can keep education going during coronavirus closures

Read the rest here:

WFAA WeatherMinds is going live with science education on Facebook - WFAA.com

Sebastien Bozon | AFP | Getty Images

The disclosure that the U.S. government is currently in discussions with Facebook, Google and other tech companies about the possibility of using location and movement data from Americans' smartphones to combat coronavirus has some people on edge about potential privacy and cybersecurity issues. Some technology advocates believethe effort could help change the narrative for these companies when it comes to data privacy.

The effort to harness location data is being facilitated by a task force of 60 tech companies working with the White House Office of Science of Technology and the Office of American Innovation, said a source familiar with the situation. Companies and organizations involved range from large to small, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Uber, Apple, IBM, as well as public health leaders from Harvard and other institutions.

With more than 223,000 reported cases worldwide and 9,149 deaths, the coronavirus shows no signs of slowing. Officials believe that the data they can glean from smartphones could help them decipher where the next flood of cases will be and ultimately where to allocate additional health resources.

"The task force has a simple mission: to use the specialized expertise of the tech community provide recommendations to the White House and other public health officials that help lessen the impact of this disease. Working with experts across fields, we are finding ways to have an impact while keeping all of tech's existing commitments to consumers," said Josh Mendelsohn, managing partner at venture capital firm Hangar, which is part of the task force.

The government has been inundated with offerings of technological help but doesn't always have the resources to vet the offers or the companies making them, the source said. The task force has been sorting through and analyzing the various solutions, proposals and recommendations, focusing on four areas: location data, clinical data, the social isolation problem and telehealth.

On March 16 the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a call to action to the tech community and artificial intelligence experts to develop new text and data-mining techniques that could help the science community answer high-priority scientific questions related to COVID-19.

"It's all hands on deck as we face the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Eric Horvitz, chief scientific officer at Microsoft in a statement. "We need to come together as companies, governments and scientists and work to bring our best technologies to bear across biomedicine, epidemiology, AI and other sciences. The COVID-19 literature resource and challenge will stimulate efforts that can accelerate the path to solutions on COVID-19."

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy did not reply to a request for comment.

Verily, part of Google's parent company Alphabet, told CNBC it is not using mobile geolocation tracking for the Baseline COVID-19 program. Google would not comment to CNBC on talks with the White House on using anonymized location data.

"We're coming off years of intense criticism of these companies ... but at some point we need to rely on them," said Michelle Richardson, director of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "If people are scared because of past overreaches, this is an opportunity to rebuild trust. These are sophisticated companies, and they have the ability to come up with creative solutions and protect data in ways smaller companies can't. And maybe find a way to serve the public interest without sharing in a way that upsets people."

But Richardson said there is never no risk in these technology efforts. "There are gradations of data-sharing," Richardson said."Sharing of individual information on a known person, especially if it is combining location data and government health information, becomes more dangerous. That can be used in ways that harm or exploit people.

"To say it's truly aggregated and there are lots of people in the area, here it is with names taken off ... it can be reidentified pretty easily by both government and companies," Richardson said.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Google spokesman Johnny Luu said the company is "exploring ways that aggregate anonymized location information could help in the fight against COVID-19." One example could be helping health authorities determine the impact of social distancing, similar to the way we show popular restaurant times and traffic patterns in Google Maps, he said, adding that it "would not involve sharing data about any individual's location, movement or contacts."

There has been growing interest in analyzing and using data collected by companies such as Facebook and Google. Last May, Facebook's data scientists introduced disease-prevention maps to help nonprofits and universities working in public health get ahead of disease outbreaks. Among the offerings: population density maps that use satellite imagery and census data to create detailed maps that include insights on demographics such as young or elderly populations. Also, movement maps that draw on health system information and aggregated location information from Facebook.

"There is no agreement to share people's location data with governments,"said Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone, who says the tech giant is creating disease-prevention maps thatdraw on Facebook location data and other sources. "This data is available to researchers, not the government. In the U.S. we briefed the CDC on the work we do with aggregate, de-identified data maps with researchers which has been previously reported and they were supportive of our doing more of it. We have not received requests for location data from the U.S. government."

Andrew Schroeder, vice president of research and analysis at Direct Relief, a California-based disaster-relief organization, has been working with mapping tools such as those at Facebook to track population movements during natural disasters, like hurricanes or wildfires, to determine evacuation patterns and if people are leaving the fire perimeter zone.

More recently, he has been aggregating data to give public officials in California a clearer view into what is happening with the coronavirus. Researchers are looking to integrate location data into disease-forecasting models to estimate contact rates, rates of transmission and to project where the disease might spread to next, in particular to those in the highest risk groups.

"The key actors on social distancing are public officials. We have to figure out a way to make the data we do have accessible," he said.

For other governments, such as Taiwan, modeling and tracking data has been a key part of their coronavirus response. Facebook has launched co-location maps there, which use data about mobility to forecast where different groups of people are likely to cross paths. Researchers can then rank which communities are most at risk and make recommendations.

But such information is not readily available in the U.S. and may be more difficult to implement. In addition to privacy concerns, some worry that a focus on tracking cases might take away from other efforts.

It would be foolish to not explore these opportunities. ... South Korea and Israel have already begun initiatives to use smartphone data to monitor the spread of coronavirus, and other countries likely will as well.

Daniel Castro

vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

"It would be foolish to not explore these opportunities," said Daniel Castro, vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

"People may have privacy concerns, and some of these concerns may be legitimate. But focusing on only privacy while ignoring public health would be a mistake. South Korea and Israel have already begun initiatives to use smartphone data to monitor the spread of coronavirus, and other countries likely will as well. If the United States pursues this as well, it can show other countries how to do so while protecting American values and civil liberties," he said.

Others, likeSusan Levinson, CEO of BioAegis Therapeutics, a North Brunswick, New Jersey-based biotech company focused on developing therapies for infectious, inflammatory and degenerative diseases, believes time is of the essence. Her team is currently working to fast-track a therapy, a naturally occurring human protein called recombinant plasma gelsolin, as a treatment for COVID-19.

It has already been in several clinical studies outside the U.S.

"While epidemiologists surely can learn from the data that is collected, the most urgent need for patients is to push forward the development of therapeutics to save lives. By the time the technology is put in place, the infection will likely have spread across the country, and the question is whether this is useful today or for the next pandemic," she said.

The scientists at BioAegis are currently working to fast-track a therapy, a naturally occurring human protein called recombinant plasma gelsolin, as a treatment for COVID-19.

BioAegis Therapeutics

"Let's not forget that this is really a serious medical issue. My concern is more about the directing of resources to the solutions that will save lives and rescue our health-care system from collapse. Investment in infectious disease has plummeted in the last decade, and pharmaceutical companies have exited the space due to the impact of antibiotic resistance on the business model," said Levinson.

See the original post here:

Facebook, Google discuss sharing smartphone data with government to fight coronavirus, but there are risks - CNBC

Roundup Welcome to the first in what we at The Register fervently hope will be a short-lived series: it's time for a tech COVID-19 roundup.

Everyone's favourite besuited services provider (and slinger of P45s) IBM has buddied up with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the US Department of Energy (and others) to kick off the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.

The consortium will unleash 16 systems with more than 330 peta-FLOPS, 775,000 CPU cores and 34,000 GPUs (and counting). There is, alas, no word on how well it will run Doom Eternal.

Including contributions from the likes of NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the tech is intended to help researchers understand and develop treatment for COVID-19.

Never one to shy away from tootling on its own horn, IBM pointed to the possibilities offered by its own Summit supercomputer, which enabled researchers to come up with 77 small-molecule drug compounds out of a field of 8,000.

Some or all of those 77 might now find themselves being experimentally tested.

The effort has taken just a few days to get running, according to Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, and came out of a conversation with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins joined the rush of tech companies dispensing largesse in the response to the outbreak.

Acknowledging that "a lot has changed" since a week-old emission where Robbins proffered freebie versions of the likes of WebEx as well as the donation of a million of dollars' worth of collaboration and networking tech, the networking giant has more than doubled down.

Over the weekend, Robbins upped things to $225m. Sort of.

In actual fact, the cash on offer is $8m. Another $210m is in the form of the company's products. The Register contacted Cisco to find out if the lucky recipients of those products would be expected to pay support fees once the outbreak comes to an end, but has yet to receive a response.

Still, other cash will come from an employee-matching gift campaign (up to $4m in total giving) and the company's 77,000-strong workforce is being encouraged "to give what they can to help our community partners on the front lines bolster their operations in this time of need".

Back in February, Cisco announced revenues of $12bn (down 4 per cent on the previous year, with products in particular down 6 per cent). Despite this, its net income crept up by 2 per cent to $2.9bn for Q2 FY 2020.

While IBM was revving up the hardware and Cisco was hunting down the back of the sofa, social media giant Facebook handed over the 720,000 masks it had snapped up in the event that wildfires continued.

Speaking through his social media orifice (and possibly through a mask of his own), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was working on "sourcing millions of more to donate."

Kang-Xing Jin, head of health at Facebook, described the other steps being taken by the platform to support those working to contain and deal with the pandemic. The first two would have had many observers coughing into their hands were it not for, you know, that virus thing.

"Making sure everyone has accurate information" and "Stopping misinformation and harmful content" are laudable goals. Sadly, both are also things that Facebook has struggled with over the years, but still, thanks to its previous efforts, we have the political leaders we undoubtedly deserve for the current crisis, so we're sure it will make just as fine a job at sifting the corona-panic.

Alternatively, you could simply pop somewhere like the NHS, which seems to have a better handle on things than your slightly racist Aunt/Uncle/Grandparent/person you met once on a work jolly (delete as appropriate).

"Clara", the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Coronavirus Self-Checker, utilises Microsoft's Healthcare Bot service, itself powered by Azure. Currently to be found on the CDC's site, Clara takes the form of a messaging system the sort that companies have taken to flinging on their websites and pretending that a human is working the switches behind the scenes.

Of course, no such thing is happening. Instead, the so-called "AI" is based on a set of response templates and functions rather like a choose-your-own adventure. Indeed, we recently built one that made a rather good fist out of playing Mornington Crescent back in the day.

However, the conversational nature of the bot could deal with many enquiries. Microsoft has furnished bot writers with a set of templates including COVID-19 risk assessment, clinical triage, FAQs and metrics, which should save overstretched healthcare professionals having to answer the same set of questions over and over again.

The CDC's implementation is, however, a little limited and prefers (in the early questions at least) to stick to simpler YES/NO-type prompts, starting with "Are you ill, or caring for someone who is ill?" before filtering out anyone not located in the US.

Microsoft's Healthcare Bot first became generally available in February 2019. Being nudged to the front line of a pandemic is possibly not the first birthday present it might have wished for.

Sponsored: Webcast: Why you need managed detection and response

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IBM fires up the big iron, Facebook hands out masks, Cisco splashes cash, and CDC gets an Azure-powered bot - The Register

You've made it through the first couple of rounds of job interviews. But you know that sooner or later you'll have to answer those behavioral interview questions that you dread most. These questions seem designed to trip you up, or get you to say something bad about yourself or someone else. For example: "What is your biggest weakness?" It just doesn't seem like there's any good answer to a question like that.

Or you may behiring a new employee. You know you'll ask these behavioral interview questions, but you don't know exactly what answers to be looking for.

To help you get the most out of your next interview, the folks at Rooftop Slushie, a site that matches job-seekers with insiders at big tech companies for mentoring and referrals, reached out to hiring managers at Google, Facebook, and Amazon. They asked for these managers' suggestions for answering these persnickety questions -- and they got some great ones.

You can find the full text of their answering suggestions here. These are my favorites.

1. "What is your biggest weakness?"

To begin with, a Facebook manager advises, don't use this answer to humble-brag, as in, "My biggest weakness is that I work too hard because I never want to give a second-best effort."

Instead, a Google engineer advises, pick a weakness that really is a weakness. But it should be a weakness that you are working to improve, and it should be a weakness born of choosing between competing priorities.

An exampleof a good answermight be: "I'm working to learn to delegate better, which is hard for me because I like to be a hands-on leader."

2. "Why do you want to leave your current company?"

This is the kind of question where it seems like honesty will never help you. An Amazon manager advises that even if the new position offers a higher salary or better perks, you're better off not mentioning them.

Instead (even if it's a lie) say that you don't want to leave your current company, in fact you're very happy there. But you saw their job description and you were intrigued -- it seemed like it might be the perfect next step in your career. And so you are here, hoping to learn more about this wonderful-sounding job.

3. "What do you do ifyou disagree with your boss?"

Managers from Facebook and Amazon agree: You should talk about your current boss with respect and empathy, acknowledging that he or she had a legitimate point of view. Then you should describe how you used data to persuade your boss that your approach was the right one.

For example, your boss decided to focus on acquiring new customers, but you wanted to put more effort into selling more to existing ones. So you started a small project to pitch new sales to existing companies using an email campaign. The existing customers turned out to be a better source of revenue than the new ones and your boss wound up thanking you for finding a better way.

Next time you're faced with a tough behavioral interview question, use these approaches to craft the perfect answer. And if you're the one asking the question, consider these insights while evaluating the answers you get.

Published on: Mar 23, 2020

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Here's Advice From Google, Facebook, and Amazon Managers on the Interview Questions You Hate Most - Inc.

There is no known cure for the new coronavirus.

Scientists are scrambling to find treatments and vaccines for the virus, which causes the illness Covid-19, and health care professionals are working to stop the spread of misinformation.

Its a tough battle. On social media, memes have become efficient vectors of bad advice, often with urgent instructions or dystopian graphics. One, misstating the benefits of gargling salty water, shows the virus as a cluster of green burrs infecting the throat of a glowing blue man.

One series of posts with bad advice including claims that sunshine could kill the virus and that ice cream should be avoided tacked on the name UNICEF.

This is, of course, not true, said Christopher Tidey, a spokesman for UNICEF, the United Nations Childrens Fund.

Misinformation during times of a health crisis can result in people being left unprotected or more vulnerable to the virus, he said. It can also spread paranoia, fear and stigmatization, and have other consequences, like offering a false sense of protection.

Here are some of the false claims that are spreading via Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

There is no evidence that gargling warm water with salt or vinegar eliminates the coronavirus, a claim that has gone viral as part of a meme the one with the glowing blue man in multiple languages. It suggests that the coronavirus lingers in the throat for days before it reaches the lungs, and that a good gargle can stop the virus in its tracks.

Thats not true. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that gargling salty, warm water is one of many ways to soothe a sore throat, but there is no evidence that doing this will kill the coronavirus.

It wont stop it from getting into the lungs, said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania and the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. What it could do is decrease inflammation, which would make your throat less sore.

Some social media posts suggest that if you sip water every 15 minutes or so, you can protect yourself from the virus which, in this scenario, has made its way to your mouth by flushing it into your stomach. The idea here is that it wouldnt enter your trachea, which leads to the lungs.

But thats false. Staying hydrated is a good idea generally, and the C.D.C. says that healthy people can get their fluid needs by drinking when thirsty and with meals. But there is no evidence that frequent sips keep the virus from entering the lungs.

A video that has been shared on Facebook claims that the virus cannot survive in hot temperatures. It shows a woman aiming a hair dryer at her face with the goal of heating her sinuses to the coronavirus kill temperature of 133 degrees. Elsewhere on social media, people have suggested that hand dryers can kill the virus.

But there is no clear evidence that this works. According to the World Health Organization, the virus cannot be killed by hand dryers, and it appears that it can survive in hot temperatures (and in cold temperatures).

Dr. Offit said that there was some research indicating that warming the nasal passage might help the immune system combat a virus. But he added that breathing near steam like sitting over a bowl of hot soup was a much better idea than aiming a hair dryer at your face.

Do the soup thing, he said. Thats better than forcing air into your nose.

Many claims about the benefits of colloidal silver come from companies that sell the product.

Colloidal silver comes in different forms often as a bottled liquid with silver particles and is promoted as a dietary supplement. But according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, evidence about the medical benefits are lacking, and silver can be harmful. One possible side effect is a condition called argyria, a blue-gray skin discoloration. Colloidal silver could also hinder the absorption of some drugs.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration said that it had warned seven companies to stop selling products, including colloidal silver, that the companies suggested cure or prevent the coronavirus.

It is not yet known what effect sunlight or ultraviolet light has on the new coronavirus. And if the virus is already reproducing inside of a human body, ultraviolet light from the sun or from a lamp cant reach it.

A walk in the sunshine might be good for your mental and physical health if you practice social distancing. And there is evidence that ultraviolet light can inactivate viruses, including flu viruses, particularly in laboratory settings.

The W.H.O. warns, however, that ultraviolet light lamps should not be used to sterilize hands or other body parts because they can irritate the skin.

Social media is full of suggestions about taking additional vitamins C is a popular one and ingesting things like garlic, pepper, mint or elderberry. But there is little evidence that these foods and supplements can protect you in any consistent or significant way.

Vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, hasnt shown a consistent benefit for treating or preventing illnesses like the common cold. And as with many things, it can be harmful in large doses. Do not take large quantities of an antioxidant knowing that your body needs to maintain a balance, Dr. Offit said.

Evidence that elderberry can help people with flu symptoms is spotty. Garlic may have some antimicrobial properties, but there is no evidence that it has protected people from the coronavirus.

In short, vitamins and nutrients can be good, especially if they come from a balanced diet. But they cant be relied upon to protect people from a pandemic.

Sound preparation, based on scientific evidence, is what is needed at this time, said Mr. Tidey, of UNICEF.

The C.D.C. offers the following guidance on what you can do to minimize your chances of contracting the virus: Wash your hands often, avoid touching your face and practice social distancing. You can also protect others by covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, staying home when sick and disinfecting surfaces.

The W.H.O. has partnered with tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, to fight bad information about the coronavirus, and its website has debunked claims about saline, antibiotics, chlorine and other substances.

Here is more coverage from The New York Times about the things you can do to stay safe.

More:

That Miracle Cure You Saw on Facebook? It Wont Stop the Coronavirus - The New York Times

India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who made a return to the squad for the recently canceled ODI series against South Africa, has revealed some funny instances from his personal life, one of which involves his wife.

Bhuvi had recently appeared on a chat show Spicy Pitch, in which he disclosed that he hadnt used Facebook since his wife Nupur Nagar has hacked the account.

She (Nupur) asked me for the Facebook password, but I made some excuses. So the next days she tells me that this is your new password. She literally hacked my account, and I have not used Facebook since then, Bhuvneshwar said on the show.

Bhuvneshwars wife Nupur also talked about the jealousy factor when the India seamer gets clicked with his female fans.

When he clicks the picture, I keep telling him that what was the need to stand so close to her. Couldnt you ask her to stand a little far? And then he says what I could do if they stand close to me.

The couple also had a funny banter on the show, as Bhuvneshwar jokingly said he was martyred on November 26, 2017, which is the date of his marriage.

Bhuvi revealed that he had a crush on Nupur since he was 13 years old which grew into likeness later on and he eventually tied the knot with his longtime friend in Meerut three years ago.

Bhuvneshwar has been out of action for Team India since he sustained a sports hernia injury last year. He was recently included in the squad for the South Africa ODI series, but after the first match in Dharamsala was washed out, the series was canceled in the wake of coronavirus.

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Bhuvneshwar Kumar reveals how his Facebook account was hacked by wife... - The Cricket Times