I am receiving an inordinate number of personal messages on social media and emails asking about different aspects of Covid-19 and the coronavirus. Often the question will be about some email that has purportedly arrived from a friend of a friend in China or Italy or wherever and claiming all sorts of conspiratorial nonsense, proclaiming the end of civilisation, or pointing out how some miracle cure might be a miracle cure (it won’t be). Often recipients are told to urgently share the message with all their contacts.
Now, I am not medically trained, I cannot give medical advice. But, what I do know is that random notes of unknown original source about scientific and medical matters from non-scientist, non-medical friends are invariably BS, they were long before Covid-19 and will remain so long after it’s over and we’ve moved on to the next crisis.
Often the BS is sprinkled with truth glitter as a kind of camouflage, but the stinking turd beneath the shiny, thin veneer of sparkles is still unpolished, fake news, scam fodder, or somehow maliciously biased ordure. It may also just be common or garden bovine waste of the kind you might use to condition allotment soil to make your rhubarb grow thicker if there were not sufficient equine output available.
If you receive such a message, just delete it. It takes a simple swipe, tap or click and you can then forget about it. Please don’t share it. Please don’t email it to people you imagine might be able to remove the glitter and reveal some hidden truth.
If you have real concerns and questions about Covid-19 and the coronavirus that causes it, visit the websites of the NHS or the WHO and take note of their advice and guidance.
Stay well friends :-)