Misinformation and coronavirus hand-in-hand in Ecuador outbreak

LISTEN | PRINT
BY ELODIE MARTINEZ (AFP) 5 HOURS AGO


Misinformation and coronavirus hand-in-hand in Ecuador outbreak
LISTEN | PRINT
BY ELODIE MARTINEZ (AFP) 5 HOURS AGO IN HEALTH
By the time the coronavirus pandemic spiraled out of control in Ecuador, misinformation was already spreading on the internet with reports of corpses being thrown into the sea, bodies washing up on beaches and miracle cures aplenty.

Misinformation was already propagating in Latin America several weeks before the virus itself.

By late January, videos were being shared widely on social media purportedly showing the live animal market that was the focus of the Chinese outbreak late last year. However, the images were not of Wuhan but of Indonesia, 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) away.

Then conspiracy theorists across Latin America accused Bill Gates and US scientists of being behind the coronavirus outbreak.

By the time China registered 80,000 infections and 250 deaths on February 29, Ecuador was reporting its first case, Brazil still had only one and Mexico three.

A month later, Ecuador's caseload had exploded to 2,800.

More:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/misinformation-and-coronavirus-hand-in-hand-in-ecuador-outbreak/article/572565

Looks as if the world will have to wait even longer, since it appears this story comes from the current administration of a hard-right President of Ecuador.

"Which one of dese?" Reserve opinion until more is heard.