For the final assignment, you will take all of your work from this semester and make it into a digital portfolio. Your portfolio is designed to look like a digital book that is organized so that someo

Nina S

English 1302

college

April 25 2021

Introduction

Covid-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise and up to date the world has not returned to its normal state. Physical learning is still not possible, traveling has been restricted and several other restrictions that humans have never experienced before. Because of this, everyone is ready to listen to information from all sources. This includes both legitimate information and information that is meant to spread the most dangerous information.

Information presented by the source

The source explains that people can recover from Covid-19 pandemic by simply drinking a bleach that is used to kill germs and other cleaning activities in the household. The production of vaccines had not commenced in the year 2020 which means that people were still desperate of saving themselves from the pandemic. Someone taught that if the bleach has the ability to kill germs and viruses then there is a high chance that if one drinks it, then they have the ability to recover because the bleach will kill the germs in the body. It was frequently insisted that the most appropriate why of beating the virus is to wash hands and surfaces regularly so that to kill any virus that is on the surface. Because of this, the initial person thought that is a patient went ahead to drink the bleach, then it is possible for it to kill the virus in the body. Within no time, the “new discovery” was all over.

The source of the information

I first heard it from the former president of the United States when he was publically asking one of his doctors whether it is possible to kill the virus through the use of the bleach. After that, I searched for more information about the possibility of recovering after drinking the bleach. One of the sources that I came across with is the Harvard school of public health (Harvard T.H. Chan). This source explains about the misinformation and why it would be wrong to consider using the bleach as an option.

Intended Audience

The world audience has been targeted by the information. Everyone is desperately thinking of how they can overcome the Covid-19 which has causes a lot of problems. People from various parts of the world have been asked to remain at home which has caused psychological issues. Humans are social in nature whereby through the socialization activities, people are able to address psychological problems are also sources of other diseases. Others can no longer sustain their needs because they have lost their jobs. At the same time, people would like their students to proceed with their education. Lastly Covid-19 has resulted to a large number of deaths all over the world. Because of the above problems everyone became the intended audience.

Potential harm of the information

Bleach contains harmful chemicals which can affect one’s health in a very serious way. The world is still suffering from other diseases such as cancer which is mainly caused by harmful chemicals. If the bleach has the ability to change the colour of a surface, what would be its impact to the human body in case one drunk it? One of Covid-19 patients and her husband tried using the option so that to treat themselves after receiving the information in Nigeria. She was later pronounced dead after taking the harmful chemicals. It is right to say that the human body cannot sustain the impact of the chemical. After all there are cases whereby people have recovered naturally from the pandemic. It would be better to wait for the recovery while one uses pain killers to treat it instead of taking a bleach which contains chemicals that the human body cannot with stand.

How I determined that it was misinformation

I must admit that when I first received the information that the bleach can kill the viruses when they enter into someone’s body, I looked at my bleach and said to myself that this is it and we have made it from the harsh period of the pandemic. (Alam, Firoj, et al, 6) But then after going through the comments shared by the experts from the medical department, they were highly warning people not to think about trying the option of taking the bleach. I also read the manual which is printed by the bleach company on how to use the product. They had written in capital and red bond letters that it should not be consumed or put close to children. (Caulfield & Timothy, 2). The company also said that it cannot be held accountable if such a case happened. If this has been the warning all along, then how comes that the bleach has the ability to heal the patients in case they decide to drink it?

I also turned to online sources whereby various medical institutions had already started warning people not consider using the bleach to treat the virus. Various institutions were already sharing information of the possible outcome of using the bleach whereby they explained that one would experience a failure in major organs such as the kidneys, heart, lungs and other body organs which would lead to serious health problems. They also pointed out there is a very high chance that one would die after consuming the harmful chemicals that are used to make the bleach. This sources were enough to discredit the possibility of recovering after using the bleach as a way of treating the virus one it has entered the human body.

How the misinformation circulated

First, people shared it verbally whereby they were making phone calls to inform others of the “good news”. Those who shared the same household also spoke about the potential of recovering from the pandemic after using the beach. However, the largest group of people shared the information through online platforms which within no time was spread all over the world. However, the major reason why the information spread so first was that the president of the most powerful country asked about it. People were sharing his videos very first in Facebook, YouTube and other platforms which would soon be assessed by people from all over the world. However some criticised it as a reckless move by the president but then the information was already at the disposal of everyone around the world.

Correcting the misinformation

Accurate version

People cannot recover from Covid-19 through drinking a bleach which is a more dangerous chemical than the pandemic as it can cause instant death to the patient. (Pennycook et al., 3). The most accurate way is following the strategies that have been put in place by the health officials such as keeping distance from another person. Staying at home that is minimising the unnecessary movements. People should also wash their hands regularly. All the above methods are supposed to be used so that to prevent oneself from coming into contact with the virus.

Another method is through the current vaccines which been produced to control the pandemic. The virus is mutating but then a large population has been helped by the vaccine. The government is also giving it to its citizens free of charge. This means that every citizen can access it and has no reason to turn into using the bleaches anymore. The bleach should be used for cleaning purposes while the vaccine should be used to treat the patients.

What makes the sources I found reliable?

The first source was the information that was printed by beach companies. They seemed to separate themselves from any negative impacts that would happen if one decided to take the bleach. This was important as it gave direct information regarding how the bleach should be used and consuming it was not a part of the recommendations. (Al-Rakhami et al., 4). The health experts have shared information about the negative impact of using the bleaches in various sources which includes the information from Harvard school of public health. This information proves to the world that the bleach should not be considered at any cost as a way of treating the virus.

How to circulate the information

It is important to use the social media services to warn people against using the bleach. The government should be at the front line to fund various groups of celebrities who have a great influence to the society to warn people regarding the negative impact of drinking it instead of using for cleaning purposes. (Datta, 5). The health institutions should also share the relevant information about the most effective methods of approaching the virus so that to separate accurate information from the force information that is spreading through the platforms.

How can it be used to correct misinformation?

The best way of ensuring that people get the right information is educating them on the effects of bleach to someone’s body. (Lang, 4) If people receive the information from reliable sources such as hospitals, it means that they have a source that can be trusted therefore they will follow this information instead of the misleading one. A campaign towards the use of the vaccine should also be emphasised especially in the developing countries where people still feel that the pandemic and the vaccines are still being used for political affairs.

Work Cited

Harvard T.H. Chan: Fighting the spread of Covid-19 misinformation

Retrieved From: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/fighting-the-spread-of-covid-19-misinformation/

Pennycook, Gordon, et al. "Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention." Psychological science 31.7 (2020): 770-780.

Caulfield, Timothy. "Does debunking work? Correcting COVID-19 misinformation on social media." (2020).

Alam, Firoj, et al. "Fighting the COVID-19 infodemic in social media: a holistic perspective and a call to arms." arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.07996 (2020).

Al-Rakhami, Mabrook S., and Atif M. Al-Amri. "Lies Kill, Facts Save: Detecting COVID-19 Misinformation in Twitter." IEEE Access 8 (2020): 155961-155970.

Datta, Rakesh, et al. "The infodemics of COVID-19 amongst healthcare professionals in India." Medical Journal Armed Forces India 76.3 (2020): 276-283.

Lang, Cathleen, and Matthew Cox. "Pediatric cutaneous bleach burns." Child abuse & neglect 37.7 (2013): 485-488.