REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
A boy wearing two face masks records with his phone during a friendly football match for International Women's Day in Abuja, Nigeria.
- Influential vloggers on YouTube and Facebook are being paid to fight the spread of misinformation about the novel coronavirus.
- The UK's Department for International Development will funnel $600,000 into H2H Network, which will ask influencers to spread accurate information about the outbreak to younger audiences in Asia and Africa.
- The government department said quacks were peddling fake cures on social media, advising viewers to spread cow dung, sleep next to onions, and eat garlic to avoid the virus.
- Influencers include Filipino YouTuber Bianca Gonzalez, a health expert with more than 7 million followers, and Bangladeshi doctor Jahangir Kabir, who has 1 million Facebook followers.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Influencers will be paid to fight the spread of misinformation swirling around coronavirus, tackling fake claims about cures and emphasizing public health advice.
Transform talent with learning that worksCapability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) announced it would hand £500,000 ($630,000) in funding to the H2H Network, which previously fought misinformation during the Ebola outbreak.
Some of that funding will go to influencers charged with handing out accurate information and pointing younger viewers in Southeast Asia and Africa to official public health advice.
DFID said harmful information circulating on social media and WhatsApp included quacks peddling fake cures for the coronavirus such as drinking bleach, rubbing mustard and garlic into the skin, spreading cow dung, and sleeping next to chopped onions.
"These pose a serious risk to health and can speed up the spread of the virus, by stopping people taking simple practical, preventative steps like washing their hands," DFID said.
Other worrying misinformation includes fake footage of Chinese officials executing coronavirus victims. In one case, DFID said, an unnamed Indian celebrity shared the falsely edited video.
The influencers brought on board include Filipino TV presenter and YouTuber Bianca Gonzalez; Bangladeshi doctor Jahangir Kabir, and Indonesian health blog KlikDokter.
Google, Twitter and Facebook face close scrutiny by lawmakers as the coronavirus spreads around the world. All three companies have taken steps to highlight trustworthy sources of information and news, while downgrading misinformation around coronavirus. But the WHO warned in February that misinformation is spreading faster than the companies can act, and both the US and UK governments have summoned tech company executives to discuss how they might help tackle the pandemic.
According to John Hopkins University, there are more than 127,000 confirmed coronavirus cases globally and the death toll has now climbed above 4,500.
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