Fighting disinformation & fake news
SAFM Interview on countering disinformation & fake news online.
Public Health Media
How bots accounts are putting lives in danger during Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of having access to factual information to enable people to make informed decisions on their health and safety. Read full article
‘Truth offensive’ needed to counter Covid-19 vaccine misinformation, says messaging expert
From paintings by artists like Xolani Sivunda to communication campaigns launched by provincial health departments, the fight against Covid-19-related misinformation is being fought on many fronts. Spotlight surveyed some of these efforts and asked health and behaviour experts what does and does not work. Read full article
COVID-19 Truth offensive
A painting shows a sick man inside a hand sanitiser bottle, surrounded with human skulls. The painting is the work of Xolani Sivunda, an artist based in Mfuleni, a township near Khayelitsha in Cape town. Read full article
Social media hype over Ivermectin is unproven and irresponsible – experts
SA’s top vaccinologists, scientists and infectious diseases experts were adamant that Ivermectin would not be authorised until sufficient data proved it to be safe and effective at the doses needed to combat Covid-19. Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic medicine that is being studied across the globe as a possible agent against Covid-19, and in SA is …
Social media hype over Ivermectin is unproven and irresponsible – experts Read More »
SA to receive a million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in January and 500,000 doses in February from the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Here are seven reactions to the above announcement EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has questioned the vaccine rollout; DA spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube welcomed the announcement saying “We cannot be complacent or sluggish”; and others have raised other valid concerns. Read the full story here:
What can we learn from the pandemics of the past?
From small pox in 1893 to the 1904 “Durban Plague” to the 1918 Spanish Flu to Covid-19 in 2020, South Africa has faced many scary viruses. Professor Philip Harrison, the South African research chair in spatial analysis and city planning at Wits’ Gauteng Regional City Observatory has done extensive research on past pandemics and believes …
What can we learn from the pandemics of the past? Read More »
Disinformation in a time of Covid-19: Weekly trends in South Africa
A crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic creates a perfect opportunity for those who wish to cause confusion, chaos, and public harm – and mis- and disinformation enables them to do just that. This week we look at elections and the actions of Real411. Read full article
Disinformation in a time of Covid-19: Weekly trends in SA
Week 19: Public officials, the media and disinformation — fire starters or fire extinguishers? Read full article
The great debate: Covid-19 and how Africans are perceived
No other continent has suffered the level of racism and prejudice that Africa has, write Cameren Peter and Shivani Ghai, and it continues to this day. Read full article
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