Coronavirus News and Information Hygiene

Advice from a risk intelligence professional on how to protect your physical and mental health when consuming and sharing COVID-19 information

This content was adapted from an article first published on Medium on March 25, 2020

Our physical and mental health are facing new and serious challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic. But the consequences for each of us are as much a function of our choices — and the information we based these decisions on — as of the virus itself.

If you really want to help yourself (and your friends and family) navigate this or any crisis, you can use many of the same risk intelligence rules, methods and tools a professional analyst would.

As a start, consider using restraint in consuming and sharing news, anecdotes and SM posts about the virus

How many posts or messages about the pandemic’s origin, credibility or threat level have you recently received from your social network? Re-posting ‘facts & figures’ about threats and hazards is a natural behavior we use to connect with our in-group or tribe, and to elevate our status.

Unfortunately, it is also the main source of misinformation, conspiracies and anxiety. Risk measurement and communication are generally complex and unintuitive, and subject to some of the most severe forms of innumeracy, bias and uncertainty. This is particularly true for risks affecting our personal safety and that of our family, which inevitably generate powerful emotions such as stress and fear.

Focus on improving the signal and reducing the noise

Think of this as moving the dial between radio stations. Quality, not quantity of information is the goal here. This will not only force you to be more disciplined about your sources and the type of content worth considering, but also narrow the uncertainty and ambiguity of a topic which is innately complex, simplifying decisions.

• Remind yourself that most #coronavirus or #covid19 posts, articles, advice or trend analyses on Social Media today are likely neither from risk, epidemiology, public-health or statistics & probability SMEs — or reputable journalists.

• Recognize the addictive and endorphins-triggering nature of the real-time global ‘deaths tracker’ on your mobile or TV screen, or the rewarding feeling you get from the growing likes on on your posts. Just because it makes you feel good or frightened, doesn’t mean it’s helpful. Awareness of these triggers offers you a better chance to resist them, and recognize that some information doesn’t really help you or your family make safer, smarter choices.

“You never know…, what if it’s true?” is not a beneficial criteria for sharing or reposting online

Adopt constructive skepticism

Repeat after me: Information Is Not Knowledge

Our information age has thus far colossally failed to translate into greater knowledge for all. Like pubescent children discovering that Mom and Dad are not perfect or always right, we are rebelling en masse against legitimate media and knowledge institutions, trading those for Google, Facebook or fringe news outlets.

Politicians, SM networks and conspiracy theorists have thus far been the largest beneficiaries (and promoters) of this form of skepticism, fueling a massive delusion of fact-finding competency.

We are arguably today less capable of evaluating the quality and credibility of information then only a decade ago. And the consequences are felt and measured in death counts around the world at the individual level, and on a global scale daily.

A vastly more constructive form of skepticism, is one aimed at our own judgment bias and heuristics. This is easier said than done, but the following basic steps can give you head start and improve the quality of your risk intelligence:

• Assume your gut feelings about this domain (health & safety risk) are most likely wrong. You will be overconfident in your conclusions, which will be likely be drawn from the more salient or recent news and events — while ignoring or misinterpreting actual data and statistics — in favor of ideas that conform with your political, religious or ideological tribe.

• Recognize that conspiracies and fringe theories are literally sexier and considerably more appealing to our mind than the often mundane, complex or unpredictable nature of truth.

Before questioning institutional sources of knowledge, be VERY skeptical of your conclusions and how you feel about the risk this health hazard represents for you.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Top Information Sources

Critical warnings and reference material (what to do, how to protect yourself, FAQs, data, etc.)

• The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• The European Centre for Disease and Prevention (ECDC)

• The World Health Organization (WHO)

If you stop here, and add some local news like your local Public Radio — you’ll actually be as informed as you need to be, yet considerably less stressed.

But if you really must…

For data nerds (or if your profession demands deeper analysis)

• The Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center and Interactive Map

• Our World in Data — which has a fantastic reputation for gathering and presenting highly-vetted data for the general public

News sources with strong data science capabilities:

• The New York Times Coronavirus section is available for free, and continues to set the standard for reporting and data journalism, along with the Washington Post’s excellent charts and maps

• The Economist retains its rank as one of the world’s top sources of news and analysis, and its Coronavirus coverage can be expected to follow this tradition (although, it may not be free)

• Vox can frequently serve as a credible compendium of selected news on a topic, and seems to be doing fair job in this case as well

Myths and conspiracies debunkers

• Still from the WHO: Mythbuster

• The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers its own Coronavirus Rumor Control page

• Media Matters for America highlights the most suspicious and widespread claims on the subject across the US media landscape, while the BBC also contributes to this effort with videos and articles

• If uncovering disinformation about this and other hot Social Media trends becomes your mission and helps you feel in control, the European East StratCom Task Force maintains EUvsDiSiNFO — one of the most credible efforts to be open to the general public