{"id":250401,"date":"2021-05-14T23:38:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/misinformation-surges-amid-indias-covid-19-calamity-2\/"},"modified":"2021-05-14T23:38:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:38:23","slug":"misinformation-surges-amid-indias-covid-19-calamity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/misinformation-surges-amid-indias-covid-19-calamity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"#Misinformation surges amid India\u2019s COVID-19 calamity"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Misinformation surges amid India\u2019s COVID-19 calamity<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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NEW DELHI \u2014 The man in the WhatsApp<\/a> video says he has seen it work himself: A few drops of lemon juice in the nose will cure COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you practice what I am about to say with faith, you will be free of corona in five seconds,\u201d says the man, dressed in traditional religious clothing. \u201cThis one lemon will protect you from the virus like a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n

False cures<\/a>. Terrifying stories of vaccine side effects. Baseless claims that Muslims\u00a0spread the virus<\/a>. Fueled by anguish, desperation and distrust of the government, rumors and hoaxes are spreading by word of mouth and on social media in India, compounding the country\u2019s humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWidespread panic has led to a plethora of misinformation,\u201d said Rahul Namboori, co-founder of Fact Crescendo, an independent fact-checking organization in India.<\/p>\n

While treatments such as lemon juice may sound innocuous, such claims can have deadly consequences if they lead people to skip vaccinations or ignore other guidelines.<\/p>\n

In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u00a0declared\u00a0<\/a>that India had \u201csaved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively.\u201d Life began to resume, and so did attendance at\u00a0cricket matches<\/a>,\u00a0religious pilgrimages<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0political rallies<\/a>\u00a0for Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist party.<\/p>\n

Four months later, cases and deaths have exploded, the country\u2019s\u00a0vaccine rollout<\/a>\u00a0has faltered and\u00a0public anger and mistrust have grown.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An
An Indian Muslim wearing face mask as a precaution against coronavirus gets his eyes lined with a black ointment called Surma, before offering last Friday prayers of Ramadan at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, India, Friday, May 7, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAll of the propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories that I\u2019ve seen in the past few weeks has been very, very political,\u201d said Sumitra Badrinathan, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist who studies misinformation in India. \u201cSome people are using it to criticize the government, while others are using it to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distrust of Western vaccines and health care is also driving misinformation about sham treatments as well as claims about traditional remedies.<\/p>\n

Satyanarayan Prasad saw the video about lemon juice and believed it. The 51-year-old resident of the state of Uttar Pradesh distrusts modern medicine and has a theory as to why his country\u2019s health experts are urging vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government approves lemon drops as a remedy, the \u2026 rupees that they have spent on vaccines will be wasted,\u201d Prasad said.<\/p>\n

Vijay Sankeshwar, a prominent businessman and former politician, repeated the claim about lemon juice, saying two drops in the nostrils will increase oxygen levels in the body.<\/p>\n

While Vitamin C is essential to human health and immunity,\u00a0there is no evidence<\/a>\u00a0that consuming lemons will fight off the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The claim is spreading through the Indian diaspora, too.<\/p>\n

\"Police
Police personnel help an elderly woman outside a vaccination center In Mumbai, India, Saturday, April. 24, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey have this thing that if you drink lemon water every day that you\u2019re not going to be affected by the virus,\u201d said Emma Sachdev, a Clinton, New Jersey, resident whose extended family lives in India.<\/p>\n

Sachdev said several relatives have been infected, yet continue to flout social distancing rules, thinking a visit to the temple will keep them safe.<\/p>\n

India has also experienced the same types of misinformation about vaccines and vaccine side effects seen around the world.<\/p>\n

Last month, the popular Tamil actor Vivek died two days after receiving his COVID-19 vaccination. The hospital where he died said Vivek had advanced heart disease, but his death has been seized on by vaccine opponents as evidence that the government is hiding side effects.<\/p>\n

\"An
An Indian woman waits for the result of her COVID-19 test at a hospital in Hyderabad, India, Monday, April 12, 2021. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much of the misinformation travel<\/a>s on WhatsApp, which has more than 400 million users in India. Unlike more open sites like Facebook or Twitter, WhatsApp \u2014 which is owned by Facebook \u2014 is an encrypted platform that allows users to exchange messages privately.<\/p>\n

The bad information online \u201cmay have come from an unsuspecting neighbor who is not trying to cause harm,\u201d said Badrinathan, the University of Pennsylvania researcher. \u201cNew internet users may not even realize that the information is false. The whole concept of misinformation is new to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoaxes spread online had deadly results in 2018, when\u00a0at least 20 people were killed\u00a0<\/a>by mobs inflamed by posts about supposed gangs of child kidnappers.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp said in a statement that it works hard to limit misleading or dangerous content by working with public health bodies like the World Health Organization and fact-checking organizations. The platform has also added safeguards restricting the spread of chain messages and directing users to accurate online information.<\/p>\n

The service is also making it easier for users in India and other nations to use its service to find information about vaccinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalse claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, seeking the doctor\u2019s help, or taking the virus seriously,\u201d Fact Crescendo\u2019s Namboori said. \u201cThe stakes have never been so high.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Misinformation surges amid India\u2019s COVID-19 calamity” NEW DELHI \u2014 The man in the WhatsApp video says he has seen it work himself: A few drops of lemon juice in the nose will cure COVID-19. \u201cIf you practice what I am about to say with faith, you will be free of corona in five seconds,\u201d says…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/covid-india-048.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[105757,1545,70544,17318],"class_list":["post-250401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-14-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-fake-news","tag-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}