Fighting Hoax In The Midst Of Pandemic
Thursday, 2 April 2020by adminstube
When all the world leaders thought hard to deal with the Corona pandemic, a virus that emerge in Wuhan, China, several countries did lockdown, such as Italy, Spain, United States and several other countries in Europe, India and also Australia. In Indonesia itself since the first infection was detected on March 2, 2020 many opinions have emerged on social media to do lockdown Jakarta to avoid the transfer of virus to villages. There are many disputes related lockdown in Jakarta, the initial decision taken by the government was 'Work from Home' or WFH for several government agencies and the private sector as well, and schools were closed. The government's decision to conduct WFH led to surge people to come back home to their villages because keep staying in the capital city was not the right choice, by considering the coming of fasting month and they did not work, they were not paid and they had no income for living cost. Now the Jakarta government implemented a Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) as a step to reduce the spread of the infections that have made Jakarta the red zone of Covid 19.
In contrast to Jakarta, in my village of East Halmahera and almost all regions of North Maluku, the community looked ‘not bothered’ or underestimate the virus, because they assume that it will not reach their place. On March 23, 2020 the government announced 1 positive Covid-19 patient from North Maluku. The anxiety and noise has just begun, various kinds of hoax information were scattered, even information regarding worship from home was not responded well by religious leaders and the community even they thought the government banned them to worship.
The noise rose when a chain message with video uploaded on social media Facebook (March 25, 2020) saying that "a newborn baby said that by boiling a chicken egg and consumed at 24.00 local time will kill the virus and also make a person safe from it". Suddenly this news shocked the public and they flocked to bang several groceries stores at 22.00 to 02.00 a.m to buy eggs. It indicated that the public are very afraid and worried, so they ‘consume’ any news about Covid-19 carelessly, so they became victims of false information easily. The hoax news has its characteristics, such as excessive news, producing panic and fear, creating hatred or anger, besides the source of the news cannot be justified. The common people needed to be educated about hoax news.
The local government of East Halmahera took several efforts by distributed budget of 3,4 billion for Covid-19 emergency response. Besides that, the health department has conducted socialization and started to collect data from the community to trace those who made travelling outside of the region in 1-2 weeks before, especially those from the red zone.
Our responsibility is providing valid information by socializing the true facts about the virus through WhatsApp group, Facebook group, and other social media, as well as the positive things that happened during pandemic. Take care of your health by consume meals regularly, have enough rest and vitamin C every day. Let us fight against Covid 19 by having clean-live and healthy habits! (SAP).
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