Misinformation has constantly proven it’s worth, and we constantly fall prey to it. Our world is chaotic and the lies blend in with the truth so often that it’s hard to pick them apart.

Recently, a man living in Phoenix tried to medicate himself for the virus by taking doses of chloroquine phosphate and passed away. He mistook the drug to be the pharmaceutical version instead of a chemical used to clean fish tank aquariums. 

For the past few weeks, while many of us are on the edge of their seats hoping for any good news, the government has been feeding false promises into the minds of all watchers. 

A case in point is the press conference that President Trump held on March 27. In said conference, it was announced that chloroquine had “been approved” by the FDA as plausible treatment for the virus which was in fact, false. Like deja vu, this same conversation had previously occurred with the drug remdesivir back in February and Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. Coronavirus Task Force member and director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had to backtrack and say that the process was still in the works. 

We’re surrounded by implications, claims, and invalid statements. And these absent-minded mistakes are quite literally adding to an already growing death toll.

To further prove my point, there have been pictures circulating of tanks in San Diego, of Homeland Security trying to trap people in their homes, and of the U.S. army and the National Guard. I mean, the point of social media being used to spread information should be to spread correct information. Otherwise, the true essence of the act is lost, isn’t it?

And the government has tried to assure the public on many accounts that everything is going to be just fine and that we are doing much better than what was to be perceived. If that’s so, then why are there nurses in New York pleading for us to stay home, and hospitals worried that they’re running out of equipment?

Living in a world where even higher officials give you incorrect information, one would think it to be up to themselves to become educated. And in a sense, it is. We as a society need to work on spreading the useful messages so that we can create a safer place for everyone to live in. 

Misinformation is more than just ignorance. It’s also dangerous.