Monthly Archives: March 2021

By Odoobo C. Bichachi

Fake news is one of the things we are most alive to today as we consume information on social media and in the mainstream traditional media.

This has spawned a healthy skepticism that enables many people to ask questions of everything they see or read. Still, there are millions of others that consume fake news without knowing or questioning it.

It is important to note that there is fake news and false news. The former is deliberately created wrong information aimed at influencing the public in one way or the other, usually for politics. The latter, on the other hand, is wrong information innocently (sometimes deliberately) put out to the public usually because of failure or laziness to double check, or just the itch to clique forward.

Sounds a little like splitting hair? Perhaps yes, fake news and false news, after all, are complimentary. What is significant about the two, though, is that they hang in the air for a very long time. I give two examples from the past and very recently.

In 2009, Kenya and Uganda relations dipped over ownership of Migingo Island, a one-acre rocky outcrop in Lake Victoria along the two countries boundary. With sabre-rattling from Kenya and stoic silence from Uganda, President Museveni was asked at a press conference to comment about the issue.

He explained that the problem of the colonial boundary demarcation in Lake Victoria was that some islands are in Kenya while the water is in Uganda. Without understanding the context of the presidents explanation and checking the maritime boundary information, a Ugandan journalist simply wrote a story that President Museveni had said the disputed island is in Kenya while the water is in Uganda!

It was picked up and circulated widely and today, that false information that hangs everywhere whenever you clique Migingo Island. So why does the matter remain unresolved if it was simply a matter of the land and the water?

The other example is the list of achievements by recently deceased Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, specifically the outlandish claim that he oversaw the tarmacking of 50,000km of roads in five years! This claim, wherever it was picked from, has subsequently been thrown around social media and peppered discussion about the great leader.

However, without diminishing his many and truly outstanding achievements in a pretty short time, any discerning reader should ask how possible it is to build 10,000km a year or 27km every day for 365 days considering what it takes to build a road!

For the more discerning people, who include journalist, it should be easy to find out that the driving distance in Tanzania north to south from Mutukula to Songea is 1,625km.

Conversely across the country, the driving distance from Dar es Salaam in the east to Kigoma in the west , is 1,374km. In fact, the total road network in Tanzania is 86,472km long, of which 12,786km is classified as trunk road and 21,105km as regional road.

It is, therefore, impossible that President Magufuli, his energy and enthusiasm notwithstanding, oversaw the tarmacking of more than half of the countrys road network in just five years! You bet for a long time, many people will give him this credit which he would never have accepted himself.

So just what gives life to fake news and false news? First, its creators that, according to http://www.webwise.ie, are driven by six primary reasons shared below (slightly edited):

Click-bait: Stories using sensationalist headlines to grab attention and drive clicks at the expense of truth or accuracy.

Propaganda: Stories created to deliberately mislead audiences, promote a biased point of view or particular political cause or agenda.

Satire/Parody: Lots of websites and social media accounts publish fake news stories for entertainment and parody.

Sloppy Journalism: Journalists may publish a story with unreliable information or without checking all of the facts which can mislead audiences.

Misleading Headlines: Stories that are not completely false can be distorted using misleading or sensationalist headlines. This type of news spreads quickly on social media.

Biased/Slanted News: Many people are drawn to news or stories that confirm their own beliefs or biases and fake news can prey on these biases.

The second factor is you and me that keep sharing false information without checking it out!

Send your feedback/complaints topublic-editor@ug.nationmedia.com orcall/text on +256 776 500725.

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Fake news hangs in the air for long time - Daily Monitor

TCPalm's Rob Landers brings you some of this week's top stories on the News in 90 Seconds Treasure Coast Newspapers

When I heard last week Indian River Countys Republican Party website listed Donald Trump as president with a term expiring in 2024, I figured it was mistake.

Nope, said Jay Kramer, chairman of the county GOPs executive committee.

"Trump hasn't conceded, and it's our opinion the election was stolen," Kramer, the former mayor of Vero Beach, told TCPalms Josh Solomon last week. "It's important to make a statement and to make sure the statement stays relevant for the next 3 years."

I asked Kramer Monday about the website, which had been changed to list Trumps 2016-2020 presidential term.

In a video on Twitter, President Trump acknowledged his President-elect Biden's election victory and called for a "smooth" transition of power. USA TODAY

It shouldnt have been changed, Kramer said of the website, adding (Trump) still says there was fraud involved and he has not conceded.

The fact isno court has determined the November election was stolen. Joe Bidenwas sworn in as president by John Roberts, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden takes the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as his wife, first lady Jill Biden, stands next to him during the 59th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS) ORG XMIT: 6515091W(Photo: By Linda Borg, MA_Worcester_TG)

The country has accepted the fact Joe Biden is the president, said Tom Lockwood, who led the countys GOP for almost 25 years before retiring from the post in 2018. I have mixed emotions. ... It is what it is. We need to move on.

Indian Rivers GOP no longer is the party of thoughtful legends like Lockwood, Carole Jean Jordan (tax collector and former state head of the GOP) and Jeanette Riel, honored as the oldest delegate at the 1996 convention.

U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, left, Carole Jean Jordan, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Thomas Lockwood, chairman of Republican Executive Committee, and Bob Von Buelow, Indian River County fire investigator, chat during the annual Lincoln Day Dinner at the Grand Harbor Golf Club on Thursday night Feb. 12, 2004.(Photo: CHRIS WEATHERLY/TCPALM)

They were among the pioneerswho, amid the Reagan revolution, helped turn the county from blue to red and kept it that way. They helped to build a party that has a plurality of county voters,46.4% vs. 27.4% Democrats.

Last week TCPalm found at least 10 Florida county GOP websiteslisting Trump as president. Some had not been updated since the election.

St. Lucie County GOP Chair Kenny Nail said its listing was unintentional. The website has been corrected.

Regardless of what Kramer said, Trump conceded Biden would become president in a speech Jan. 7, the day after insurrectionists stormed the Capitoland interrupted Congress' electoral vote tally.

A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump said. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.

This moment calls for healing and reconciliation, he continued. Defeating this pandemic and restoring the greatest economy on Earth will require all of us working together. We must recognize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bond us together as one national family.

A screenshot from the Republican Party of Indian River County website taken on March 16, 2021, lists Donald J. Trump as the current president. Currently 10 Florida county Republican Party websites are showing Donald J. Trump as the current president.(Photo: SCREENSHOT FROM INDIAN RIVER COUNTY GOP WEBSITE)

More: Some Florida GOP websites still list Donald Trump as president

More: Bumpy plan ride kindled relationship between Bushes and Jordans

Susan Auld, former head of the Martin County GOP executive committee and former GOP House leader in Vermont, tended to agree.

A divided country will not thrive, she told me Tuesday. We need to come together around positive principles that lead us all forward. Were headed on a downhill slide because were divided.

Unitingas a party is critical, she said.

A divided party will not win elections and that's where we are headed at the moment, she said, noting the GOP ought to focus on such items as peoples liberties, states rights and such. We have to rally around the principles of the party.

Lockwood, who said he has seen increasing division in the local party the past four years, agreed.

Prior to that we were pretty cohesive, he said of a party that won nearly every local election for more than three decades. If we stay divided, we will fall.

Auld said she has a lot of questions about the election, but its time to move on.

I dont think trying to change this is going to help anyone, she said.

A Suffolk University/USA TODAY Poll in February showed just how divided Republicans are nationally. A plurality of those surveyed, 46%-27%, say they would abandon the GOP and join a Trump party if the former president created one. Others are undecided.

Ive heard Trump supporters say Democrats never acknowledged he won the 2016 election and tried for four years to boot him so theyre not going to accept Biden aspresident. Now U.S. House Democrats arereviewing the Iowa election of a Republican House member.

When will the fighting end and the business of focusing on our nation begin?

U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas(Photo: TCPALM FILE PHOTO)

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, expressed concern in a recent podcast, particularly with regard to division in his own party.

It's really easy to call all my other Republican colleagues RINOs (Republicans in name only) and say they never do anything, said the former Navy SEAL, who lost an eye in battle. I will never use the term because it's stupid, because it indicates a lack of thinking.

The reality, he said, is if Republicans dont unify they will lose no matter how hard and loud they fight. And losing, when he was a SEAL, was not an option.

It means presenting our case with a moderate audience in mind across a variety of platforms, Crenshaw said. It means actually understanding conservative principles and understanding how those principles make for superior governance and policy solutions.

In other words, Crenshaw thinks the battle for the all-important middle can be won with words, not bluster.

The politicians involved in the effort to block the election knew better, and they still did it, Crenshaw said. They still said this is where we finally fight. And, apparently so, the best way to fight, I guess, according to them, is to engage in unwinnable battles that persuade no one and leave you, their supporters, even more desperate and downtrodden than before.

Even two of those politicians who represent the Treasure and Space coasts issued somewhat conciliatory statements upon Bidens inauguration.

Larry Reisman(Photo: PATRICK DOVE/TCPALM)

While expressing his disagreement with Bidens socialist policies and efforts to appease the radical left, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, said he was committed to working with him when we can find areas of agreement, especially on the issues that are most important to me personally: fixing Floridas water issues and serving our veterans.

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Despite the divisions that exist in our nation right now, I do believe there is still more that unites us than divides us, and there is certainly no country I would rather call home!

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said he shared a letter of Congratulations with President Biden.

Meanwhile, there's deliberate fake news on Indian River Countys GOP website.

Sad, but true.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman

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Deliberate fake news on Indian River Republican website shows party has changed | Opinion - TCPalm

Coming off the tumultuous 2020 election, Gannett editors discussed how to look for ways to be more inclusive in all aspects, from race and religion to ideology and income.

I tasked Pennsylvania editors to search for ideas and initiatives we could explore with greater community outreach in any of these areas.

We're chipping away at multiple areas as I write. We have one that's ready to go.

Our state planning director and longtime editor Torin Sweeney recently hit me up with an idea to engage those who stand on the conservative side of the political spectrum.

Weveheard a lot about how divided this country is,probablyenough during the last election cycle to last a lifetime.Theres a reason for that: Its true. We see it on our opinion pages and in comments on our Facebook page. Weve been called biased, fake news, a liberal rag and those are the kind ones.

So how do we overcome this?

Regaining trust once its lost is no trivial thing. Trust in the mediaby those who identify themselves as conservative or right-leaning continues to drop. A Pew Research Center study heading into the 2020 election found that of 30 national news sources, only two, Fox News and ABC,were trusted by at least33 percentof those on the right.

So we want to find a way to constructively engage and connect with that significant point of view, particularly in purple Bucks County.

Weve partnered with the American Press Institute and Trusting News on a project called Reengaging the Right,to study that deficit in trust.And we need your help.

Maybe youre a subscriber, maybe youre not.Maybe you think we get it right sometimes, or maybe you think were fake news.ThatsO.K.You only have to identify as politically right of center.

If youre interested, itstarts with a survey, which you can find athttp://bit.ly/newstrustsurvey.

Basedonthe surveyswe receive, well pick three to five peopleof varying backgrounds, demographics and degrees of conservative belief,and begin reaching out the week of April 5for interviews.Sweeney will help coordinate our efforts here.

Itwont bea debate or a salespitch. Were not going to argue with you or try to change your mind. Well ask you questions, youll answer, well listen. Simple as that.

Theinterviews willlast about an hour and can take place via phone or Zoom, and they will be recorded.Recordingswill not be shared with anyonebesidesthose involved with theproject.Youwon'tsomedayseeyourselfon YouTube.We wont evenidentify you within the project byyour real name.After the interview is complete, youll receive a gift card that can be used at a variety of national businesses.Not a bad deal.

And you'll be part of a bigger initiative. American Press Institute looked for diversity related to geography, community size and platform. The Institute wants to see how answers differ in various parts of the country, in urban and rural environments and among public radio listeners,weekly newspaper readers andmetro TV viewers. It has commitments from at least 30 publications and stations, with a handful of other Gannett properties from various parts of the country.

Our goal as journalists is to serve our community. Full stop. That means everyone who lives and works in our region,liberal or conservative or somewhere in the middle, even if you dont trust us. And if you dont, consider taking the survey and telling us why.

We have to make an effort to listen to one another, for the greater good or our communities.

Shane Fitzgerald is Executive Editor of the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer, as well as the Pennsylvania State Editor for the USA Today Network. Email: sfitzgerald@couriertimes.com.

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Consider yourself a conservative? We want your opinion on Courier Times and Intell content - Bucks County Courier Times

Issued on: 22/03/2021 - 19:20

Every year the FRANCE 24 Observers brings you a special episode on how to verify online content and debunk misinformation for Frances official Press and Media Week.

For the 7th edition of Truth or Fake, we partnered with the French Centre for Education in Media and Information to answer questions from French high school students about how we cover fake news.

Thank you to the teachers and students who participated in this episode!

It was presented by Derek Thomson and Catherine Bennett in English, Mava Poulet and Alexandre Capron in French, Djamel Belayachi and Fatma Ben Hamad in Arabic, and Erika Olavarria and Natalia Ruiz Giraldo in Spanish.

Every week The Observers team digs into misinformation circulating on the internet, finds the truth behind online posts, tells you where they comefrom and explains how to fact-check photos and videos yourself.

Find more of our debunks and see our shorter, weekly episodes of Truth or Fake on FRANCE 24 English's Instagram page and on The Observers website.

Do you want to get in touch with the FRANCE 24 Observers team about misinformation youve spotted online?

How to contact us:

Email: observers@france24.com

DM us through our Facebook page

Get in touch on Twitter @Observers

WhatsApp: +33 6 30 93 41 36

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Truth or Fake 2021: We answer your questions about fake news! - The Observers - The France 24 Observers

Times change. There was a time when the Chinese and Filipinos worked together in trade and commerce even before Western colonization. All the symbols of this cooperation can be found underground with diggings of Chinese artifacts. Filipinos did business trading silk materials through the galleon trade. So they were friends and intermarried. Many Filipinos have Chinese ancestors and carried the Chinese names up to this generation. Our national hero, Jose Rizal, is one. We should keep in mind this background instead of being bullied by Western colonizers into believing black propaganda into a new cold war.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a contest on who gives more help to the Philippines in the world crisis. Here are the facts seldom talked or written about.

As promised, the Philippines received the second batch of China of 400,000 more vaccines, following an oversubscription for the 600,000 doses previously donated by China on Feb. 28. It is this donation from China that rolled out the vaccine program for the Philippines.

Many friends who shunned the Chinese vaccines are now asking how they can secure shots for themselves.

Critics of the Duterte administration lead the chorus of fake news led by Vice President and opposition Senators Hontiveros, Pangilinan, Lacson, ex-Justice Carpio. They questioned the China vaccine and continue to sow fear and confusion in the public when over 500,000 Filipino frontliners have been vaccinated.

But we still have mountains to climb before we can celebrate. We need a whole of nation approach, the cry of General Luna bayan muna bago sarili rings louder!

It was good to see our top Filipino doctors including PGH Director Gerardo Gap Legaspi, St. Lukes president Dr. Arturo dela Pea (also a COVID survivor), FDA director Eric Domingo, Chinese General medical director Dr. Samuel Ang leading the way. We really should learn to listen to the right experts, not only to lying politicians.

While the critics were demonizing Dutertes seeming preference for the China vaccine, other global health ministers, national leaders from Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, UAE, among other countries, including royal families and 80-year-old Pele and more than 70 million people worldwide have received their shots of the China vaccine.

The biased naysayers hinder the Philippine recovery. They do not say that it is the richer Western countries who have hoarded the vaccine supplies more than what their populations need. Many Filipinos also dont know that Sinovac has been in the Philippines since 2009, providing effective and affordable anti-rabies, anti-tetanus, flu vaccines to Filipinos with its Filipino partner IP-Biotech that has formed a coalition of biotech and pharmaceutical experts led by Filipinos, as revealed by think-tank Integrated Development Studies Institute.

Lianhua Qingwen was approved in Singapore, Canada, Thailand and of course China and Hong Kong, among a dozen or so countries since May 2020, but it took our FDA until August to approve it, but only if prescribed by a specialist, while the other countries made it over-the-counter!

President Dutertes independent foreign policy and hard work of our Philippines and China diplomats made possible more than 70 flights, including Philippine Air Force planes, have been allowed by Chinese authorities to land in China to pick up such medical supplies for the Philippines, reported Ambassador Chito Sta. Romana.

Ambassador Chito also noted that China prioritizing the Philippines is a direct result of President Dutertes call to President Xi Jinping last June 2020 requesting for the Philippines to be included in Chinas priority list. We must remember China has 1.4 billion people and dozens of countries are also rushing to secure supplies from China.

Yet as early as May 2020, Xi Jinping announced to the world that China will make the vaccine a public good and has since donated vaccines to more than 50 poor countries. The 1 million donated vaccines from China is on top of the donated over a billion pesos worth of medical supplies and other assistance to help our Filipino frontliners in the early months of the pandemic when help was scarce. Latest news is China-led AIIB just approved the loan of $300 million for the Philippines vaccine budget.

It was also Chinese supplies thatdramatically lowered the prices of face masks and face shields that skyrocketed to more than a hundred pesos in the early months of the pandemic... now face masks go as low as P2 and face shields even at P8!

In contrast, the US was caught pirating medical supplies and nurses even from allies in the early months of the pandemic. Now it has cornered over a quarter of the global vaccine supplies, more than what its population needs and has vowed to protect the profits of their pharmaceutical companies. Recently, Pfizer was reported to require sovereign guarantees and even military bases in exchange for vaccines and forcing other countries to extend a blanket liability waiver even if the problems are due to Pfizers own negligence.

This is all part of the propaganda war, but the story was reported by news network from allies of the US like Germany and India. China does not play the demonizing game. How can the Philippines expect to get allocations from the US when Bidens White House on March 1 said that the US will not share vaccines with Canada and Mexico until all Americans are inoculated. After getting criticized, US announced later that it will allow AstraZenenca vaccines to be delivered to Canada and Mexico, which is approved in the two countries, but not in the US, interestingly.

EU has also said it is not ready to supply poorer countries, while securing multiple times more than what their population needs.

Ironically, the pandemic is revealing how hollow the words of those who claim to champion democracy and human rights are, forgetting that for this pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe!

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Get the facts, not fake news - Philstar.com

This photograph taken by a JEOL 7401F scanning electron microscope of the detailed structure of a sample swab from an antigen test shows that there are no parasites on it - what you are looking at are the bristles of the brush on the swab. (PHOTO: Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

The Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences is refuting a lie that has been spreading through the Czech Internet with the aid of videos and other hoax materials alleging that parasites have infested the swabs that come with antigen tests. According to the findings of scientific researchers, there are no parasites to be found in or on such items.

Scientists from the Academy of Sciences' Electron MicroscopyLaboratory have shed light on the falseness of the claims making the rounds on social media. They are responding to posts in which a video with shots from a regular microscope are purporting to show the tip of a swab used to take nasal samples to test for the presence of the novel coronavirus.

The hoax alleges that black threadlike structures can be seen on the photograph taken of a sampleswab under a microscope and claims they are parasites that will crawl through our noses right into our brains when we take the samples. Scientists from the Biology Centrehave posted the following information about those false allegations to their website: "A staff member of a firm entrusted with the task of arranging the process of testing for their employees contacted us for assistance. The assignment was not an easy one - to quickly find antigen tests for a reasonable price, to set up a system of testing and announcing the test results, and to fine-tune a million other details. However, he had not counted at all on one barrier that proved to be rather essential. He did not count on his employees' fear of the testing, a fear that had been prompted by a video allegedly 'showing parasites' on the tips of the sample swabs."

"Because we have the best technology for observing the micro-world, and many years of experience in discovering the world around us that is invisible to the naked eye, we decided to check a sampling swab. First we looked at one under a regular microscope and then we looked at it througha JEOL 7401Fscanning electron microscope. As the photographs taken with those microscopes demonstrate, the bristles at the end of the sampling swab are actually a perfect miniature brush. There are no parasites there, not spherical ones and not thread-shaped ones!" the scientists posted online.

"We were surprised by the sterility of the swab, because the micro-world is full of bacteria, mold spores, pollen and an inexhaustible amount of fragments and fibers, so the absence of such things is unusualand demonstrates whatthe requirements are for the purity of the material used for close contact with the mucous membranes of the nose," says Jana Nebesov of the Electron MicroscopyLaboratory. "In any event, if you were to rub those little bristles anywhere else other than inside your nose, it is certain that this miniature broom would capture a great deal of micro-garbage that could then look like miniature interlopers or parasites."

The truth, however, is that a sterile swab for taking a sample from your nose, when it is first unwrapped, has nothing living on it, and that includes the parasite that is so frequently being discussed on social media right now, Vlasovec mzn (Wuchereria bancrofti). "The larva of a Wuchereria bancrofti measures, at the most, approximately 0.3 mm in length, and there is no way that corresponds to the size of the fibers that are being shown in many of these videos on the Internet. What's more, such larvae are carried just by certain kinds of mosquitoes when they draw blood, which is how such larvae mightaccess a human being's circulatory system. The larvae would then grow and settle in the person'slymph nodes, where they wouldmatureand causeblockage, which would then leadto the development of the disease called elephantiasis, during which different parts of the body increase in size enormously. What is being shown in these videos is clearly not Wuchereria bancrofti. I would appeal to people's common sense," said tefan Balog, a graduate of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Charles University in Prague who currently is the manager of the ROMEA organization's scholarship program.

"These hoaxes that are being disseminated are of no aid to society when it comes to getting us out of the situation we are in. For that reason, please, maintain your cool,try to find more out about an issue first before you share it with others," Balog called on his fellow Internet users; the Czech fact-checking websiteManipultoi.cz has been debunking the disinformation and hoaxes making the rounds online.

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Czech Internet flooded with fake news alleging parasites are infesting items now mandated by the Government, such as antigen tests - Romea.cz

A recent report published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and Anti-Vax Watch suggest that approximately two-thirds of COVID-19 misinformation originates from 12 people.

What does this mean? Well, approximately 65% of the anti-vaccine content you see on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms have recently been tied to just 12 individuals or organizations globally.

Social media is then used to further spread propaganda about vaccines. Heres what you need to know.

The study is based on analysis of a sample of anti-vaccine content that had been shared or posted on Facebook and Twitter over 812 000 times betweenFebruary 1 andMarch 16, 2021.

Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH explains that disinformation has become a direct threat to public health and was created to mislead the general population about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

Social media is enabling anti-vaxxers to recruit millions of Americans and indoctrinate them with fear and doubt. If Big Tech companies dont act now, the pandemic will be prolonged, and more lives will be lost.

The spread of misinformation continued despite major social media platforms determination to clamp down on propaganda. Sadly, these [12] individuals have largely been permitted to maintain their presence across mainstream social media.

The 12 individuals and organizations mentioned in the report have repeatedly violated Facebook and Twitters terms of service agreements during the global pandemic.

The vast reach of misinformation has now led to the CCDH and Anti-Vax Watch issuing a call to action to social media giants, urging them to remove those responsible for the majority of anti-vaccine content.

Ahmed explains that the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google will appear before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss the role of social media in the spread of disinformation.

Members of the committee must use this opportunity to hold these companies accountable and urge them to follow through with their commitments to crack down on life-threatening disinformation.

He says the only way to stop the spread of anti-vaccine propaganda would be to remove the Disinformation Dozen from their platforms. Social media giants should also take steps to further decrease the presence of online misinformation.

The biggest culprit mentioned in the report is Joseph Mercola, an alternative medicine promoter who runs a multimillion-dollar business selling dietary supplements online.

The list also includes John F. Kennedys nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was recently banned from Instagram for violating the sites coronavirus vaccine misinformation policy. Twitter has yet to take action against Kennedy, Jr.

Other members of the Disinformation Dozen include Sherri Tenpenny, Ty & Charlene Bollinger, Rizza Islam, Ben Tapper, Rashid Buttar, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan, Erin Elizabeth, Christiane Northrup, and Kevin Jenkins.

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Disinformation Dozen: Here are the 12 people behind world's COVID-19 vaccine fake news - The South African

Now that time has begun to do what it always does confer a more complete perspective we can offer thanks for the last American presidency even if only for one aspect of it. That misadventure showed what happens when an unanchored force uses disinformation to achieve its objectives. It might be tempting to dismiss the suggestion that such an up-the-garden-path strategy might work here with the disdain of a Parisien rejecting a vaccine because it was not made in France but that would be foolish. Dangerous too.

Saturdays anti-lockdown march in Dublin was a modest affair involving around 150 souls but 11 were arrested. Others were fined for ignoring public health guidelines. It is difficult, and disheartening, to try to understand why people, even if only a tiny minority, subscribe to views so very contrary to public health advice.

It is possible but unacceptable, that anger on other issues makes them susceptible to online quackery. That dynamic, and unspoken ambitions, may be behind similar protests in Germany this weekend. In Kassel, far-right opponents of pandemic regulations clashed with police and counter-protesters. The protests came as the rate at which Germans are being infected passed the level at which authorities say healthcare systems will be overburdened.

Today we report on how the HSE works to counter the misinformation spurring those protests. The authority has highlighted more than 300 posts spreading misinformation in the last six weeks alone. It is not hard to think that recent protests in Dublin and Cork were provoked by what the HSE has described as deliberate misinformation.

That intended and deliberate dishonesty is not confined to health issues. The Royal Swedish Academy of Science publishes a report today warning that fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss has a delaying and worrying impact on averting environmental threats.

The scientists warn that urgent measures will be hard to enforce if they continue to suffer targeted attacks on social media. Given the vast scale of the problem, the report warns that modest adjustments to todays industrial and agricultural practices will be insufficient. Transformative changes are now necessary, it concludes. Misinformation from one lobby or another has become a real and growing threat.

As if to confirm that these battles are as much emotional or intellectual as scientific in recent days Canadas Conservatives voted to reject the line that climate change is real from a revision of its policy documents. It might be interesting to know how the citizens of Australias New South Wales would react to that incomprehensible vote. This weekend NSW issued more evacuation orders following the worst flooding in decades. Already ravaged by bush fires Australian attitudes towards climate change are changing.

The role misinformation plays in shaping public attitudes can hardly be confined to the pandemic or climate collapse. Once again Yeats advice seems wise: Cast a cold eye on life lest we blindly march up one beguiling garden path or another just as those so misled to attack Washingtons Capitol on January 6 were.

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Irish Examiner view: Fake news is another pandemic - Irish Examiner

A year ago, the UK went into lockdown.

Yet while most worried deeply about what was happening, incredibly, for much of the time before that, some people online simply did not believe what they were being told.

Twelve months on, we look back at the reactions of people across the UK as the virus first emerged in China, then spread here in isolated outbreaks - before cases soared and forced the most severe restrictions on freedom of movement in UK history.

And the analysis shows a number of things - from the ridicule and disbelief that some expressed at first at what some thought was 'just the flu', to the worry that spread over the weeks as the UK became gripped by the virus.

Perhaps most striking of all is just how far-sighted many comments from ordinary people were - with discussion on social media about what the Government should do to protect schools and the NHS at times running well ahead of what was actually happening.

Coronavirus has changed society here and across the globe.

This is a look at what people were thinking on social media as the virus closed in on our shores.

On January 11, one website informed readers of a "mystery deadly virus" that had hit the city of Wuhan and was spreading at an increased rate.

We now know that 12 days later the Chinese city went into a lockdown that became the template for how the rest of the world would deal with the pandemic.

But at the time, people in the UK had heard little - and some were sceptical about what they were being told.

"Mass hysteria!" said one person commenting on Facebook.

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Covid-19 was first recorded in the UK on January 31 when two cases were reported. At that point, the global death toll was 265.

In a statement, Professor Chris Whitty, a then little-known public health official, said: "We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus. The patients are receiving specialist NHS care, and we are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus.

"The NHS is extremely well-prepared and used to managing infections and we are already working rapidly to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent further spread.

"We have been preparing for UK cases of novel coronavirus and we have robust infection control measures in place to respond immediately. We are continuing to work closely with the World Health Organization and the international community as the outbreak in China develops to ensure we are ready for all eventualities."

We now know that was the beginning of a terrible outbreak that has so far claimed more than 126,000 lives.

But while the reaction that day on Facebook seems eye-opening in retrospect, at the time few even in government had any sense of how dreadful things would soon get.

"That's it - time to start trying to scare everyone," said one person in response to a news story about the first UK cases.

"Here we go - get ready for scaremongering," said another.

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Already, though, people were expressing concern that flights were still being allowed to the UK from China.

"The borders should have been shut," said one person.

"Should have closed the borders instantly - no one in or out," said another.

"As if we dont have enough health problems," one person said.

"We need stricter border control while this is on and proper health checks in the airports for everyone."

That is an issue that was still being discussed many months later.

Meanwhile, advice that is now commonplace was starting to be voiced by people worried about what lay ahead.

"If we all follow guidelines, we can all prevent spreading - share the prevention, not the virus," said one person.

"Get your hands on some Dettol and hand alcohol gel."

But there was worry, too, with one person saying simply: "It's very frightening."

The NHS - for decades an iconic institution at the heart of British life - has now seen its reputation enhanced beyond all measure.

Back in January last year, though, well before the claps at doorsteps, people were praising the NHS as being an organisation that would be able to cope with what might lie ahead.

"Don't underestimate the NHS," said one person. "They are troopers."

Because of what was happening abroad, it was already clear that something very serious was likely to be on the way here.

By the next day, February 1, with rumours now spreading of more cases, news reports said a section of Paddington station in London had been cordoned off after staff told commuters about a 'suspected virus outbreak' that saw two people taken to hospital.

The global death toll had risen overnight by 45, to 310 - and more people were anxious about what was going to happen.

It transpired days later that the Paddington patients did not in fact have coronavirus - but, before that became clear, opinion at the time ranged from disbelief to serious concern.

"Scaremongering at its finest," said one Facebook user, while another put it more bluntly, saying: "This is boring me now."

Another, much more worried person saw it differently, saying: "This should be taken seriously - don't underestimate how this will spread."

By February 3, Health Secretary Matthew Hancock said the Government would plough fresh money into developing a vaccine to combat the virus.

It was announced that infectious disease experts would use 20 million of UK government funding to embark on a six-month plan to produce a vaccine.

At this stage, the official death toll in China was 361, and the global death toll 432.

There had still been only two cases in the UK at this point.

Reaction to news about the new investment online was mixed.

One person said simply: "Not rapid enough."

Another, more personal message was touching, but understandably failed to appreciate just how deadly the coronavirus crisis would soon become.

"They are hoping for a vaccine in six months," the Facebook user said. "20 million given to research.

"Every year there are 2,190 people dying in the UK from motor neurone disease.

"And 150 years after first diagnosing this disease, we still don't have a treatment or cure.

"If they would spend that amount on finding a cure or a treatment for MND, people like me and many others would have a chance to live and not be trying desperately to fight a losing battle with this horrific disease that slowly robs you of your ability to walk, talk, move, swallow and breathe."

Heartbreaking though those sentiments were, the death toll from Covid-19 would eventually be far, far worse than even those figures.

Hospitals prepare for outbreaks

By February 5, the number of cases was still no higher - the only confirmed patients being the two announced on January 31.

One newspaper reported that a hospital trust had told its board it already had plans in place to support staff responding to outbreaks of the infection.

Training is also underway to ensure clinical teams are well prepared," the trust said.

The ongoing outbreak is an evolving situation and our teams are working closely with our partners to ensure any response is coordinated and effective.

It was a fairly technical statement, but one reader raged at the news outlet, saying: "That's the way to cause mass panic. Shame on you."

These kinds of comments were in fact commonplace during the early phase of the pandemic in the UK - although even today news organisations reporting straightforward official data on the virus are vilified by some who think Covid has been blown out of all proportion.

Some were angry about what they clearly felt was a non-news story.

But others were starting to ask more basic questions - like how would it affect their day-to-day lives.

One person asked: "Silly question, but what about all the parcels coming from that way like off eBay, if they sneeze in the box and seal it up, then its posted around the world?"

The global death toll by February 5 now stood at 572.

However, there had now been 27,463 cases globally - a massive jump on the 557 cases reported two weeks earlier.

February 15 was a day after Valentine's Day, and for the vast majority of people, life was still carrying on in a fairly ordinary way.

That day, though, health officials were seen in one Midlands town wearing hazmat suits after reports a man had fallen ill after returning from a trip to Hong Kong with his wife the day before.

The reaction online was relaxed, with some even joking about it. One person quipped: "I don't think anyone there has ever left the place, let alone gone to China."

The story attracted a lot of news coverage at the time, although as far as is known no coronavirus cases were ever confirmed.

By now, there had been nine coronavirus cases in the UK. But there had now been 69,052 cases worldwide.

And there had now been 1,670 deaths - up from 17 on January 22 when the tally first began.

On February 18, a surgery in the south-east of England announced it would be deep-cleaned after a suspected coronavirus case.

Public Health England later said that the case was actually not linked to the virus.

However, like the hazmat incident a few days earlier, any sign of the virus was being pounced on by the authorities.

There was still reason to be calm in the UK, with the overall case total still standing at nine. There were no deaths yet, and nor would there be until March 2.

The story reached more than 40,000 people, with dozens tagging in friends about the news - even though there was no case.

Some were angry that the incident was even being reported.

There had now been 75,152 cases across the globe, and 2,010 deaths.

But at this stage, in the UK, we were still in the equivalent of what during the Second World War was called the phoney war - the first eerie months of inaction before the nightmare arrived.

In the ten days between February 18 and February 28, the number of UK cases increased steadily - from 10 on February 21 to 42 by February 28.

Supplies of hand sanitiser and face masks were starting to run low. One website reported that stock was running low across the area.

One chemist said: "We cant get any hand sanitisers or face masks.

We are sold out of face masks and we have noticed the prices of those products have gone up."

Another said: I have asked staff to order some face masks as customers are asking for them and we are struggling to get any in.

Panic-buying had not arrived at the supermarkets yet - but hand sanitiser was starting to become harder to locate.

Online, one Facebook user said: "I saw a woman in Home Bargains clear the shelf of about 20 bottles."

But the gross insensitivity of some online was still clear to see - even though by now the global case count was 84,122 and the death toll had reached 2,924.

One person summed up the unfeeling attitude of some online by saying: "It's only going to kill the old and weak - don't worry about it."

On March 2, an elderly woman who already had underlying health problems became the first person in Britain to die after being diagnosed with the disease.

Some no doubt thought that it might be an isolated case.

Within a month, however, there had been 6,005 deaths - although many of these were not reported at first but only added to the records days or weeks afterwards.

By now, there had been 108 cases in the UK. Across the world, that figure was 90,377, and there had been 3,118 deaths.

A report on one website told people about the different symptoms for Covid-19 and the common cold.

With the crisis yet to really arrive in the UK, reaction online to the situation was calm, with some dismissing news reports about the virus as an over-reaction.

"More people die on the roads every day but cars aren't banned," said one person.

"I'm not dismissing it but just trying to put it into perspective."

Another common theme at the time was that Covid-19 was just the flu - which between 2001 and 2019 in the UK had, along with pneumonia, killed between 25,406 and 34,496 a year.

Link:

From 'fake news' to fear - how views changed in the weeks before UK lockdown one year ago - Wales Online