How to Treat the Disinformation ‘Virus’ Undermining Health and Democracy

AI Summary

Disinformation surrounding the recent hantavirus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has led to community violence, including attacks on Ebola treatment tents. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus has been falsely claimed to be fake or deliberately engineered.

The recent hantavirus outbreak triggered a wave of disinformation along similar lines to the COVID-19 pandemic: the virus was “fake”, “deliberately engineered”, and could be “cured” by Ivermectin. In the past week, furious community members have attacked and torched tents housing Ebola patients at Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) […]