Dominican Republic study shows how coronavirus misinformation is spreading
- Nearly half the population of the Caribbean island nation believes debunked conspiracy theory that the virus was made in a Wuhan lab, survey finds
- Researchers say such perceptions mean people are more likely to defy social distancing rules and they promote distrust in the scientific community
The poll also found that another 25 per cent had not ruled out the possibility that the new virus was man-made – prompting a warning from the researchers on the spread of misinformation.
In the Caribbean island nation, the majority perception is that “Covid-19 emerged from genetic manipulation by scientists within a laboratory in Wuhan, China, whose purpose was to produce a vaccine against HIV, and spread from an accidental escape”, the researchers wrote in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on preprint server medRxiv.org on Thursday.
“Our study strongly suggests that more attention needs to be paid to the misinformation regarding the origin of Covid-19 in social media and the news,” said the team led by Lenisse Reyes from the Hospital Jose Maria Cabral y Baez in Santiago.
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