| Abstrakt: |
Not only did a pandemic break out in 2020. There was also an outbreak of a so-called "infodemic" of previously unforeseen magnitude, as information regarding the new corona virus, both accurate and inaccurate, rapidly flooded the Internet. Among the falseand misleading information that quickly startedtospread, threethemes were among someof the most commonly occurring: the origin of the virus, alternative medical advice, curesand treatment and the vaccine. This paperdiscussesthe three themes based upon recent research, and argues that they were each fairly predictable. Not only wasthe demand forinformation regarding the new virusenormous -and understandably so - but the groundwork for misinformation on the different themes had already been laid. Some of the false information therefore got off to a flying start. The paper concludes that remedies to address this kind of information suffer from the inherently very high level of uncertaintythat follow significant health emergencies, which in turn sets the bar very high in terms of accurately addressing false claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
