Coronavirus overload: five ways to fight misinformation and fear | The Guardian

How do we deal with new information about Covid-19 at a time when the science, the advice and the consequences of the pandemic are all changing rapidly?

People are being bombarded with new information at a time of heightened stress and it’s playing damaging games with our decision making.

So how do we decide what’s good information and what isn’t? What should we think about before we make a decision to share information on social media, go out and mix with others or make purchases at stores?

“In some ways this is a perfect scenario for misinformation to thrive – it’s fast moving, it threatens everyone and there’s a lot of uncertainty,” says Dr Will Grant, of the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science.

“It’s not quite a wicked problem like climate change in that Covid 19 is really pretty visible, linear and with strong historical parallels, but this is definitely an environment where information and misinformation will spread rapidly.”

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