An outbreak of deadly diseases is common these days. They can be caused by many microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa, and viruses. The most recent outbreak is caused by the virus known as Coronavirus.
The disease was found in China in December 2019, when the public health officials of china reported the World Health Organization (WHO) about it as an unknown virus. This virus is usually present in all kinds of animals which sometimes evolve to affect human beings. The disease is named as COVID-19 by the WHO, where ‘CO’ stands for ‘Corona’,’ VI’ stands for ‘virus’, ‘D’ stands for ‘Disease’ and ‘19’ is the year of occurrence. The transmission of the disease is as easy as a cold, even cold is one of the symptoms of it.
The information about the disease is being shared by the WHO via newspapers, social media, etc. However, after all these measures being taken, fake news is spreading at a higher speed. The method in which common people communicate and spread information plays an important role. Alessandro Vespignani, a professor of Physics, Computer Science, and Health Sciences at Northeastern University, says the inclusion of such realistic features is essential to accurately model the way information spreads in real-time.
“The study opens the path to more realistic modeling of the diffusion of information and misinformation that takes into account the geographical and social structure of social networks,” he says. The research of the spread of information includes the analysis of the originality of the data available on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Google. In the long run, research will help in spreading information with more precision and accuracy.
The use of social media is good but as far as the spreading of information is concerned, we should not always rely on it. The chances of news being a hoax, nowadays, are even higher.
Mrinal Garg