Category Archives: Fake News

Karl Marx is one of the most seminal thinkers of the modern age. His radical thoughts have influenced all spheres of human life in innumerable ways. The impact of his thoughts on modern epistemology and civilisation can be best gauged from the fact that, without reference to his writings, no thinker, in contemporary times, can profoundly think about society, economy, politics, or culture.

Indeed, Marx was not considered a philosopher by traditional philosophers as they did not find him philosophical enough! Similarly, he was not considered a sociologist by traditional sociologists, since, in their view, he was not a pure sociologist!

Nevertheless, over the decades, his writings have attracted the renewed interest of scholars of all hues and are now read and celebrated across the streams of social sciences. For instance, nowadays, in sociology, he is taught as one of the classical sociological thinkers, alongside pure sociologists like Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.

However, Marx is still not widely celebrated as a journalist by journalists and media scholars. This is perhaps because of the prevalence of a certain pronounced and bias and myopia in the mainstream corporate media, which is accustomed to deal with the superficial, and not with complex and meticulous research in subjects like history, political economy and sociology. It is presumed that Marx is too scholarly and political to be a journalist!

Indeed, the indifference meted out to Marx, the journalist, is best exemplified by the fact that his journalistic works and legacy per se are generally not taught in journalism schools and newsrooms in any part of the world. In some institutions of higher learning dealing with journalism and mass communication, it is almost blasphemous to introduce a Marxist critique, or rethink concepts such as media and society, media and conflict zones, or media and peoples movements, from within a radical framework. For instance, Marxs various important theories (including the labour theory of value) are deliberately avoided in graduate and post-graduate studies in several mass communication and journalism institutions, including in India.

Also read: Karl Marx: Of Obituaries, Epitaphs and Sundry Mix-Ups

It is true that journalism was not Marxs original calling. Marx was essentially a scholar. He was compelled to choose journalism as a profession out of sheer compulsion that of economic necessity for survival since he was socially ostracised by the mainstream German academic community of his time because of his progressive, radical and non-dogmatic stance.

Indeed, Marx, as a career journalist, doggedly practiced journalism during the prime of his life, from 1842 to 1865. During this period, he went on to edit two progressive and anti-establishment newspapers, namely Rheinische Zeitung and Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and served as the chief of bureau (of Europe) for The New York Tribune, one of the leading newspapers of the 19th century, widely respected for its analytical journalism and opposition to the then prevailing hegemony of the penny press.

Besides, Marx contributed hundreds of articles on wide-ranging political, social and economic subjects for several newspapers and magazines, including The Peoples Press, Die Revolution and Die Presse. Indeed, his politically-charged and historically-informed text, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte which chronicled the French coup of 1851 that was followed by the arrival of the dictatorship of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte remains one of the most profound journalistic works of all time.

The Marx memorial at Highgate Cemetery in north London. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Similarly, Marx wrote several seminal, incisive articles on colonial India. Some of the well-known articles are: The British Rule in India, The British Cotton Trade and The Future Results of British in India.

The fact remains that Karl Marx, during his entire formative intellectual career, was largely targeted, hounded and punished by the power elite of his time due to his journalistic activism. Most notably, he was forced to flee multiple times and live in exile for many years.

Indeed, Marx, as a journalist, championed the cause of the free press. He not only unremittingly wrote radical articles on every pressing issue of his time, but also journalistically advocated for a free press. He, unfalteringly, believed that the existence of the press in society is sacrosanct and hence it must remain absolutely free.

In this context, it is important to note that at that juncture, his stance on free press was quite similar to the libertarian schools view of the free press. Surely, this stands in sharp contrast to the status of the press being totally subservient to the state in the communist countries of the 20th century. He advocated the cause of free press in the following words:

The free Press is the ubiquitous vigilant eye of a peoples soul, the embodiment of a peoples faith in itself, the eloquent link that connects the individual with the State and the world, the embodied culture that transforms material struggles into intellectual struggles and idealises their crude material form. It is a peoples frank confession to itself It is the spiritual mirror in which a people can see itself It is the spirit of the State, which can be delivered into every cottage, cheaper than coal gas. It is all-sided, ubiquitous, omniscient.

Also read: What Can Karl Marx Offer to the 21st Century?

Also, while being a journalist, Marx fervently campaigned for a press law. He unwaveringly believed that having a mechanism of press law is the best defence against the oppressive regime of censorship. He argued:

In the press law, freedom punishes. In the censorship law, freedom is punished. The censorship law is a law of suspicion against freedom. The press law is a vote of confidence which freedom gives itself. The press law punishes the abuse of freedom. The censorship law punishes freedom as an abuse. It treats freedom as a criminal, or is it not regarded in every sphere as a degrading punishment to be under police supervision? The censorship law has only the form of a law. The press law is a real law.

Indeed, the journalist in Marx, in myriad ways, shaped the political activist in him and vice-versa. For instance, during his editorship of the committed newspapers like Rheinische Zeitung and Neue Rheinische Zeitung, he untiringly strived to educate the working class in the run-up to the ensuing revolutions (the revolutions of 1848 also known as the Springtime of the Peoples).

In this sense, it can be argued that, through his journalistic activism, Marx, the philosopher, slogged hard to practice his eleventh thesis on Feuerbach, The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

Surely, in the contemporary times of churnalism wherein the majority of the corporate-run, mainstream news media perennially churn information (and disinformation) through round-the-clock, instant reporting (and misreporting), fake news and propaganda in support of the ruling establishment, as in India the journalistic legacy of Marx, that is, pursuing analytical journalism which goes beyond the immediate and superficial, and exposes the complex and transformative subtext of political, social and cultural events with painstaking and meticulous intellectual rigour and honesty holds great significance.

Indeed, it is high time when Karl Marx, the erudite, objective and analytical journalist is revived and celebrated, and his tradition of journalism is practiced in spirit far and wide.

Naren Singh Rao is a Delhi-based media educator and social commentator.

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In the Era of Fake News, We Must Celebrate the Journalist in Karl Marx - The Wire

On Tuesday The New York Times, The White House and other media sources claimed that there had been no gas shortages, no long lines at gas stations, no major hikes in gas prices since the shutdown of theColonial Pipeline and that the country was not in a shortage of fuel. Yet papers like the dailymail.com were stating the truth and now the hidden truths have come out.

President Biden stated that the government did not pay the $5 Million dollar ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency, yet today it has been confirmed the DarkSide did receive the $5 million ransom to regain control. The ransom was paid just hours after the attack last week, yet the pipeline remained offline for another six days, triggering severe gas shortages, panic buying and chaos across the South.

John Catsimatidis, told Fox Business Network that he heard Colonial paid a ransom of $4 million.

Analysts have stated paying off ransomware gangs will lead to more attacks on critical infrastructure.

Colonial began a system restart, on Thursday morning, with 71 percent of gas stations across North Carolina still without gas, and half of the stations in Florida, Washington DC, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia running dry, according to GasBuddy.

The outages spread from New Jersey to Mississippi with more than 10,000 gas stations offline, and the national average price of gas rising to $3.28, the highest level since 2014, according to the AAA Gas Price Index.

Expect gas prices to go through the roof now that we know they paid this ransom. As it is since Biden become President gas went from under $2 to $3.59.

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Fake News The New York Times, Biden and More Times Square Chronicles - Times Square Chronicles

After the declaration of results of the state assembly election in West Bengal, news of violence from various parts of the state began to be reported.

The re-elected Trinamool Congress government acknowledged that 16 people had died in the post-poll violence. However, other parties, including the BJP, have alleged that the numbers are higher and that at least 20 people have died.

According to the families of the deceased, nine from BJP and eight from the TMC have claimed to have lost kin in the violence. A member of the CPI(M) and a supporter of the Indian Secular Front have also been reportedly dead.

As the violence erupted, images and videos began to be circulated on social media platforms, depicting the violence in West Bengal.Many of these visuals were shared by leaders of the BJP.

However, AltNews, an independent fact-checking website, has debunked several of these images and videos as fake.

In this interview with Himadri Ghosh, a journalist based in West Bengal, The Wires Seraj Ali discusses the repeated instances of post-poll violence in the state, the fake news ecosystem that surrounds such violence, among other issues.

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Watch | Post-Poll Violence in West Bengal and Fake News Ecosystem - The Wire

More than eight in ten people in Canada use online private messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp; and over half are receiving messages about the news or current events at least weekly. Without greater transparency from the private platforms themselves and investment in digital literacy efforts, this growing vector for online news will continue to spread disinformation and other online harms.

The Cybersecure Policy Exchange at Ryerson University analyzed the role of private messaging in Canada, including user exposure to disinformation, hate speech and spam, and recommended potential policy and technical approaches to mitigate harms.

Their new report, Private Messages, Public Harms, used results from a representative survey conducted in March 2021 of 2,500 people in Canada and found that:

The spread of disinformation and other online harms poses risks to social cohesion, public safety and democracy; and, as a result experts and policymakers have raised calls for technical and regulatory changes. At the same time, concerns have also been raised regarding over-censorship of content and that such regulatory changes may negatively impact freedoms and rights, particularly the right to free expression.

This paper analyzes steps that governments and platforms around the world have taken to mitigate online harms, including adding labels and limits on message forwarding to decrease 'viralality', limits on group size; mechanisms to enable users to report harmful content to moderators; and features to encourage users to verify information they receive.

"To date, Canadian regulatory proposals to regulate big tech have focused on social media content that remains publicly accessible, but disinformation spreading on private messaging apps is a growing threat to our democracy. The federal government should join other international jurisdictions in regulating greater transparency into how online private messaging apps can manifest in public harms," says Sam Andrey, Director of Policy and Research, Ryerson Leadership Lab.

To better understand and mitigate these complex challenges they offer three recommendations for the Government of Canada:

The full findings from Private Messages, Public Harms are available at: https://www.cybersecurepolicy.ca/

Abacus Data administered an online survey on behalf of the Cybersecure Policy Exchange to 2,500 residents of Canada over the age of 16 between March 17 and 22, 2021. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based sample of the same size would be 2%, 19 times out of 20.

The Cybersecure Policy Exchange is an initiative from Ryerson University, dedicated to advancing effective and innovative public policy in cybersecurity and digital privacy. The through Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and the Ryerson Leadership Lab.

Ryerson University

https://www.ryerson.ca/

https://www.ryersonleadlab.com/

AB

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Half of Canadians regularly receive fake news through private messaging apps - The Suburban Newspaper

NEWLY single Alex Rodriguez initially didn't believe his ex, Jennifer Lopez, was back with her ex-fiance, Ben Affleck.

He allegedly deemed the reports as "fake news," but now he's apparently "heartbroken" by her quick rebound.

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Sources told In Touch Weekly Arod is really heartbroken" about JLo's reported reunion with Ben Affleck.

They went on: Theres a lot of excitement for the return of Bennifer but not everyones rejoicing about the rekindled romance.

Alex may not be in the best position to judge, but he doesnt think Jen is making a good decision. He thought the stories of Jen being back with Ben were fake news.

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The insider went on saying the news of the return of Bennifer came as a shock to ARod, sharing: Jen getting back with Ben, after all these years, and with all the heartache she went through, is the last thing Alex expected.

[Alex] was holding out hope that Jen would take him back.

But, according to some of Jens friends, that ship has sailed. She tried to reconcile with Alex, and she just couldnt make it work. Shes not looking back; Alex is definitely in her rearview mirror.

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The source explained the bond between Jen and Ben is "real," noting: Theres no doubt that Jen and Ben have something special between them.

She knows what this looks like, and that the whole world is watching, but she doesnt care, she wouldnt do it if it wasnt real.

"Jen is doing what she always does when it comes to relationships shes following her heart.

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Meanwhile, Ben wed actress Jennifer Garner, 49, in 2005, with whom he shares daughters Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, nine, although they separated in 2015.

Jennifer shares 13-year-old twins Emme and Max, with her ex-husband Marc Anthony.

Alex and his ex-wife, Cynthia Scurtis, share daughters, Natasha, 16, and Ella, 13.

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JLo, 51, enjoyed a week-long getaway to Montana with Ben, 48, less than a month after announcing the end of her two-year engagement to Alex.

In new photos, the pair could be seen together in a car near a resort in Big Sky last week, where Ben has a home, and were then seen arriving back in Los Angeles on a private jet over the weekend.

A source close toAlextoldE! Newsthat he's"shocked thatJLohas moved on"so quickly.

JLo has been spending time with her former partner since breaking up with ARod afterrumors she couldn't trust him.

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ARod first believed ex JLos romance with Ben Affleck was fake news but now is heartbroken by her quick... - The Sun

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday called out fake news doing rounds on various platforms regarding examination guidelines.

In view of the news circulating in print and digital media, it is clarified that UGC has not yet issued any guidelines on examination recently and the news is incorrect, read the official announcement. The commission released an official notice regarding the clarification.

Read | UGC asks higher education institutes to create COVID task force and helplines

It has come to the commissions notice that incorrect news regarding UGC guidelines on examination has been published in some print and digital media. UGC had issued guidelines on examination and academic calendar from time to time during last year. Further, UGC notification issued on May 6 has requested the universities to keep the offline exams in abeyance during the month of May 2021, the official notice read.

The commission on Monday had advised all higher education institutes (HEIs) to constitute COVID task force and helplines to help students and teachers amid the ongoingpandemic. The varsities have been directed to promote COVID appropriate behaviour including sanitisation, wearing masks, washing hands with soap and maintainingsocial distancing.

The UGC had earlier asked all higher educational institutes (HEIs) to not conduct any offline exams in May 2021. The commission hadreleased a circular regarding the announcementon its official website. The HEIs are also advised to assess the local conditions for conducting online exams.

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UGC issues clarification against fake news on examination guidelines - The Indian Express

Facebook has agreed to meet with South Africas Parliament over concerns around disinformation before South Africas 2021 local elections, the Communications and Digital Technologies Committee has said.

The meeting which was requested by the Democratic Alliance is set to take place on 25 May 2021.

Facebooks agreement to the meeting is historic and a source of pride for South Africa as a first in Africa, and one of a few countries in the world to successfully secure a meeting with Facebook, said DA MP Phumzile van Damme, who had issued the invitation.

We commend Facebook for agreeing to the meeting which we hope will be constructive.

Van Damme said the reason for inviting Facebook was to establish what steps the tech giant would be taking to tackle harmful misinformation, particularly in light of the upcoming elections.

Facebook often tailors plans for countries ahead of elections to guard against harmful misinformation, Van Damme said. We would like to see the same done for South Africa.

In September 2020, the social media company implemented measuress which it said were intended to help secure the integrity of the US elections by encouraging voting, connecting people with authoritative information, and reducing the risks of post-election confusion.

These included updates related to misinformation, COVID-19 and voter suppression, and a ban on new electoral, political, or social issue ads.

Van Damme said the protection of private data of South African users on Facebook-owned platforms would also form part of the meeting.

The DA MP was likely referring to concerns around WhatsApps new privacy policy among South Africans.

The implementation of the policy was delayed following heavy backlash from users earlier in 2021.

The aim of discussions with Facebook will be to ensure that the interests of the people of South Africa are protected as well as upholding the constitutional right to freedom of speech, Van Damme said.

She added the meeting will also be the beginning of discussions regarding Facebook paying South African media houses for carrying their content as was recently successfully implemented in Australia.

The DA has sent similar invitations to other big tech giants Google and Twitter.

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Facebook to meet with South Africas Parliament over privacy and fake news - MyBroadband

Tejasvi Surya made the charges of corruption earlier this week. (File)

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya has denied reports that he apologised to those working at a municipal COVID-19 war room in Bengaluru, after his allegations of what he called a "bed-blocking scandal" at his own party-controlled civic body took a communal turn.

"When one has no news, they create fake news," his office posted on Twitter, responding to two news reports that said he apologised to the 200 employees at the facility during a visit on Thursday evening. His account was contradicted by those present at the war room at the time.

Mr Surya had visited the facility on Tuesday and broadcast the video live, reading out the names of 17 Muslim employees who he accused of corruption in the allocation of hospital beds as the city and Karnataka struggles with a massive spike in COVID-19 infections.

A video of the incident showed the Bangalore South MP in the municipal Covid war room with three BJP MLAs, grilling officials. One of the MLAs, his uncle Ravi Subramanya is heard shouting, "Have you appointed them for the madrassa or the Corporation?"

Later, there is more offensive profiling from an MLA who said to a woman official, "Who is this person, Madam? How can he appoint 17 members like a Haj committee?"

Mr Surya says, "How did you choose them?" Then he adds that he is questioning only the qualifications of the man who made the selection.

After Tuesday's incident, names, phone numbers and addresses of the workers were spread on WhatsApp and social media from BJP-linked accounts with the caption: "List of people working in the BBMP War Room killing thousands of Bengalurians".

The incident has led to scores of the people who work in the war room facing harassment, including sexual harassment, according to reports. Some have reportedly had people showing up at their homes asking for hospital beds.

On Wednesday, searches were carried out by the police at the city corporation's war rooms. The police said they are also investigating the hospitals where four people were arrested for allegedly blocking beds with fake names for COVID-19 patients paying bribes. Seven people have been arrested in the case so far.

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"Fake News": Tejasvi Surya On Reports He Apologised For Bengaluru Bed Row - NDTV

Institute of National Security Studies, the premier think tank on national security established under the Ministry of Defence, organised a public lecture on Fake News: Apex Threat to National Security, as a virtual session on 6 May from 3-4:30 p.m.

Department of Government Information Director General

Mohan Samaranayake

The Guest Speaker of the occasion was Department of Government Information Director General Mohan Samaranayake. The Moderator, Director of Communication and Publication Rear Admiral Dimuthu Gunawardena, welcomed the guest speaker and took an approach towards the dialogue on the threats posed by the circulation of fake news. The event was opened to the public and valuable outputs were rendered by the audience, inclusive of representatives of government authorities, tri-forces, academia, journalists and other invitees.

The bottom-line of the discussion on fake news was trifold. Those include the revisiting into the definition of fake news focusing on its evolution up to the digital age, motives of the circulation of fake news and critically putting under a lens, the progress Sri Lanka achieved in the regulation of the said matter.

The guest speaker first set straight on the fact that fake news lacks a universally accepted definition, thus positioning fake news as a semantically contested concept. A broad definition was also provided which referred to fake news as false or misleading information which appears as credible, but in reality, are mere fabrications. Three scholarly established elements of fake news were also identified, namely creating mistrust, misinformation and manipulation. Apparently, the misuse of information is nothing novel, and dates back to ancient chapters of history. Such instances were false allegations spread against Lord Buddha, Marc Antony committing suicide following the spread of baseless rumours and the sensationalising of news by Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst competing with each other as news agencies in New York, which was later referred by the phrase yellow journalism. As the term fake news, lost its meaning given the newer advancements of the digital age, scholars promoted the use of the term, false information.

Focusing on the motives behind the circulation of false information, the guest speaker pointed out several factors citing examples. The predominant motive was politically oriented, where false information was used as a weapon against regime change. Most of the regime change attempts on political leaders such as Viktor Yanukovych by the West during the cold war, was sparked by misuse of information. The speaker also pointed out the alleged misinformation campaign during the 2015 Presidential Election as another objective of fake news; seeking victory in elections.

Rather than disposing of fake news solely to the account of internet-based sources; social media, mainstream media was also assigned with a liability of being responsible in dissemination of misinformation, which has affected greatly for the losing of their credibility.

As to self-assess the credibility of information, the guest speaker proposed several factors such as detecting the credibility of the source, reading behind headline and critically viewing the content, checking for supportive sources and dates and assessing the authenticity of the author.

The discussion was also turned towards Sri Lankas commitment on battling fake news. In this regard, the most recent cabinet decision on social media regulation was considered highly debatable, and the consequent discussion revealed several crevices in the local system towards regulation of information. The Government does not have a specific institutional body solely in charge of regulating fake news. No studies were conducted as to propose policy options, hence no academically sound and politically viable regulatory measures were adopted on the misuse of information.

By concluding the lecture, Samaranayake brought up valuable outputs to the issue, which ranged from attitudinal transformation to policy formulation. Therein, the approach towards the matter was preferred to be both bottom-up, which focuses on increasing public awareness and top-down options which include introducing fact-checking mechanisms within the parliament itself, which is currently not in existence and the establishment of proper supervisory bodies.

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Mohan shares insights on 'Fake News: Apex threat to National Security' at INSS lecture - ft.lk

Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvana

More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also an equally destructive and pernicious parallel epidemic of misinformation.

While scientists and experts meticulously choose their words backed up with sound data, purveyors of fake news boldly proclaim as gospel many half-truths and factoids taken out of context. Epistemic trespassing, where experts in one field readily dive into otherwise nuanced discussions and declare their opinions as facts, has misled many. Infectious diseases doctors and public health practitioners have been undermined by quacks and self-proclaimed experts, causing a lot of harm. This week, we address misinformation that continues to be shared on social media and online, sowing doubt and undercutting a proper science-based approach to COVID-19.

Unsupported statements from an email that has been circulating on mass testing are dissected, as well as some misinterpretation of newer developments on airborne transmission of COVID-19 and the role of testing for antibodies after vaccination.

Myth #1. Its been more than a year, why dont we still have mass testing?

This is a false and misleading statement. Adequate mass testing in the Philippines has been reached in the recent past. Per the World Health Organization guidelines, one of the criteria for the definition of a controlled epidemic is less than five percent of samples positive for COVID-19, at least for the last two weeks. This was achieved by the country from December 2020 to late February 2021. The current high positivity rate is a result of the surge, but with the ECQ, MECQ, and other interventions, this has been going down steadily. Haphazard testing can artificially bring positivity rates down, but this is not a meaningful way to properly achieve control. With more robust pandemic responses, the positivity rate will go down to manageable levels in the near future.

Myth #2: Testing 10 to 20 percent of a nations population per day would (sic) lead to rapid reopening.

This is false and impossible for most countries to achieve. First, there is no nation in the world, except perhaps very small nations, that have enough resources to test one-tenth of its population in one day. In the Philippines, that would mean over 10 million tests at a cost of P30-60 billion a day.

Taiwan has done about 600,000 tests (2.5 percent of the population); China has done 160 million tests (12 percent of the population); and New Zealand has done about two million tests (40 percent of the population) since the start of their respective pandemics and all these countries have very good control of their cases.

Doing testing on 10 to 20 percent of the population per day is unrealistic, wasteful, and logistically impossible. The US has done a total of 460 million tests in a country with 330 million peoplethe most number of tests by any country to date. A 10 percent of the population per day testing rate in the Philippines would mean that we have to test as many as the US has tested during its entire pandemic in a just over 40 daysan absurd proposition with no basis in reality.

Misleading Fact #1: Out of 1,000 Filipinos, only 85 get tested for COVID-19 per day.

This number is not meaningful without proper context. If one lives in Batanes where there are zero new COVID-19 cases, why would there be a need to test anyone? Testing for the sake of testing is wasteful and illogical if there is no risk of disease. Testing appropriately includes considering pretest probability and the tests sensitivity and specificity. Any number is meaningless unless taken in the context of disease prevalence and the purpose of testing.

Myth #3: Studies show that countries that test more have lower fatality rates.

This is false. The worlds leader in testing, the US, has one of the highest fatality rates in the world as well as the highest absolute number of fatalities. The document says studies but does not cite any. Gibraltar, which has the highest testing rate per capita globally, also has the second highest deaths per million population. It is not the amount of testing alone that is important but the availability of testing in combination with other control measures that determine how many people are infected and how many people die of COVID-19.

Misleading Fact #2: The Philippines ranks low at 110 out of 172 countries for total tests performed relative to its population.

This fact does not mean much without any context. Japan and Taiwan have done less testing than the Philippines relative to its population and these two countries have done well. We rank 115th in number of deaths per million population. Many countries (US, France, UK, Spain) rank higher than us in total tests relative to their populations but they have more than 10 times our number of deaths. Testing and testing rates should be seen within the context of need and demand, not as numbers in isolation.

Myth #4: We are fighting a fire blindfolded (pertaining to inadequate testing).

This is not true. There is a state-of-the-art genomic surveillance system that is keeping track of variants of concern. RT-PCR and antigen tests are being properly deployed among symptomatic and close contacts, especially in surge areas.

Haphazard testing is not an efficient means of interrupting transmission. According to a recent Lancet Infectious Diseases paper by Kucharski and his colleagues, the effect of randomly testing five percent of the population every week (which is very expensive) is a reduction of a mere two percent in transmission. When testing is properly done and targeted, it can decrease transmission by 60 to 80 percent, RT-PCR sensitivity is variable throughout the disease course and testing asymptomatic patients especially those without recent exposure has a very high false negative rate.

Testing is important to guide interventions, contact tracing, and for surveillance. It is not, however, a panacea for controlling the pandemic. The proper way to manage case numbers is with the minimum health standards with face mask (85 percent effective), face shield (78 percent effective), and other interventions as shown in Table 1. Testing is essential, but only as part of a comprehensive set of interventions. Focusing on testing as a cure-all is an inefficient and misguided exercise with no sound basis in public health.

Myth #5: WHO has finally admitted that COVID-19 is airborne.

This is a false and misleading statement. WHO already recognized early on that COVID-19 can be airborne in hospitals, especially when doing aerosol-generating procedures. It later updated this guidance to include the possibility of transmission in indoor settings with poor ventilation. There is no specific admission since this has already been acknowledged from the very start. A recent Lancet letter on airborne transmission of COVID-19 is still consistent with our current understanding of how people get COVID-19. Masks and faces shields still work. There is now more emphasis on improving ventilation in enclosed spaces, and people should avoid taking their masks off in these places. Best evidence still indicates predominantly droplet transmission, with a possible airborne component, especially indoors.

Myth #6: You need to test for COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies to ensure that your vaccine worked.

This is false. The US Centers for Disease Control does not recommend testing for antibodies, whether IgM, IgG, or neutralizing antibodies after vaccination. This is because different vaccines induce different types of antibody responses, and different antibody tests measure different types of antibodies. Even purported neutralizing antibody tests can be inaccurate since there are no agreed upon standards on what constitutes protection. The best assurance for protection of vaccines is from the clinical trials and real-world efficacy studies.

A persons immune response to the vaccine includes not just antibodies but also cell-mediated immunity. Cell-mediated immunity in the form of T-cells is particularly important for preventing severe disease since these cells are responsible for recognizing virus-infected cells and destroying them before the virus can propagate. There are clear robust T-cell responses from all the approved COVID-19 vaccines, and there is good evidence that these also protect against the new variants.

With the latest COVID-19 surge starting to abate, we need to remember how scary the full hospitals and emergency rooms were so that we continue to take full precautions as we open up our economy. As more vaccines arrive, we need to boost peoples confidence in these injections since they represent the fastest way out of the pandemic. Stamping our fake news and misinformation is crucial toward achieving the goal of a COVID-19-free Philippines.

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Here are some of the worst fake news on COVID-19 testing - Manila Bulletin