Pandemic in times of global connectivity and disruption of scientific information
World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020 when the disease spread across the globe. Till date, it has caused more than 300,000 infections and about 13,000 fatalities. Within days after declaring it a pandemic, WHO called it an ‘infodemic’. One important reason for calling a pandemic ‘infodemic’ is the propagation of misinformation and unscientific information parallel to the scientific data. Initially there was not much known about the virus when it appeared in the wet market of Wuhan, China. But as soon as Chinese health experts analyzed the cause of the new pneumonia, they found out a new virus, named SARS-CoV-2, was the causative pathogen. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). WHO calling it an ‘infodemic’ indicates the frustration of public health experts at the face of rapid spread of misinformation. Health systems across the globe started facing the real brunt of an abrupt overstrain caused by a unkn...