LibGuides: COVID-19 health information: Recognizing and avoiding misinformation and disinformation

Recognizing and avoiding misinformation and disinformation

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Particularly given how little is known about the coronavirus in the first place, it's no surprise that recognizing facts from misleading information is such a challenge. The resources on this page offer you some strategies to help you recognize factual information, and separate it out from more questionable information.

World Health Organization Mythbusters page

WHO Mythbusters
In addition to generally debunking false information spread online, this page offers credible information in particular on what types of pharmaceutical responses are available to the disease. For example, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin *will not* cure Covid.

NewsGard Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center

NewsGard Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center
"As a new strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spreads across the globe, so does disinformation and misinformation. Follow the spread of this dangerous information with NewsGuard’s new Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center. Listed [on the site] are all the news and information sites in the U.S., the U.K., France, Italy, and Germany that we have identified — 139 so far — as publishing materially false information about the virus."

Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic (Mike Caulfield)

Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic
"Over the past four years, [Caulfield has worked] to identify the core skills and habits that students and citizens are missing that leave them vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation on the web. We have organized them into a model called SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context."

Further resources for evaluating health information

Further resources for evaluating health information (opens separate guide)
On this guide you will find ideas on how best to critically evaluate information you encounter. These ideas will help you answer such questions as how credible are the sources I identified? How scholarly or reliable are they? How do I make that assessment?