關(guān)于冠狀病毒的假事實滿天飛

關(guān)于冠狀病毒的假事實滿天飛

is calling an "infodemic" — an overwhelming amount of information on social media and websites. Some of it's accurate. And some is downright untrue.

冠狀病毒的爆發(fā)引發(fā)了世界衛(wèi)生組織所謂的“信息危機”——社交媒體和網(wǎng)站上鋪天蓋地的信息。有些是準確的。有些是完全不真實的。

The false statements range from a conspiracy theory that the virus is a man-made bioweapon to the claim that more than 100.000 have died from the disease (as of this week, the number of reported fatalities is reported at 2.200-plus).

這些錯誤的說法包括陰謀論，認為這種病毒是一種人造生物武器，以及有超過10萬人死于這種疾病(截至本周，據(jù)報道死亡人數(shù)超過2200人)。

WHO is fighting back. In early January, a few weeks after China reported the first cases, the U.N. agency launched a pilot program to make sure the facts about the newly identified virus are communicated to the public. The project is called EPI-WIN— short for WHO Information Network for Epidemics.

世界衛(wèi)生組織正在辟謠。1月初，在中國報告首批病例幾周后，該聯(lián)合國機構(gòu)啟動了一個試點項目，以確保向公眾傳達關(guān)于新發(fā)現(xiàn)的病毒的事實。該項目被稱為EPI-WIN-世衛(wèi)組織流行病信息網(wǎng)絡(luò)的簡稱。

"We need a vaccine against misinformation," said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies program, at a WHO briefing on the virus earlier this month.

“我們需要一種針對錯誤信息的方法，”世衛(wèi)組織衛(wèi)生緊急項目負責(zé)人邁克·瑞安博士在本月早些時候世衛(wèi)組織關(guān)于該病毒的簡報會上說。

While this is not the first health crisis that has been characterized by online misinformation — it happened with Ebola, for example — researchers are especially concerned because this outbreak is centered in China. The world's most populous country has the largest market of Internet users globally: 21% of the world's 3.8 billion Internet users are in China.

雖然這不是第一次以網(wǎng)絡(luò)錯誤信息為特征的健康危機，例如，埃博拉病毒就發(fā)生過，但研究人員特別擔心，因為這次疫情集中在中國。世界上人口最多的國家擁有全球最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶市場：全球38億互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶中有21%在中國。

And fake news can spread quickly online. A 2018 study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that "false news spreads more rapidly on the social network Twitter than real news does." The reason, say the researchers, may be that the untrue statements inspire strong feelings such as fear, disgust and surprise.

而且假新聞可以在網(wǎng)上迅速傳播。麻省理工學(xué)院2018年的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，“虛假新聞在社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)Twitter上的傳播速度比真實新聞更快。”研究人員說，原因可能是不真實的陳述激起了強烈的情緒，如恐懼、厭惡和驚訝。

This dynamic could cause fake coronavirus cures and treatments to fan out widely on social media — and as a result, worsen the impact of the outbreak, says Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

塔夫茨大學(xué)弗萊徹學(xué)院全球商學(xué)院院長巴斯卡爾·查克拉沃蒂表示，這種動態(tài)可能導(dǎo)致假冠狀病毒治療手段在社交媒體上廣泛傳播，因此，加劇了疫情的影響。

Over the past decade, he has been tracking the effect of digital technology on issues such as global health and economic development.

在過去的十年里，他一直在追蹤數(shù)字技術(shù)對全球健康和經(jīng)濟發(fā)展等問題的影響。

The rumors offer remedies that have no basis in science. One untrue statement suggests that rubbing sesame oil on the skin will block the coronavirus.

這些謠言提供的治療方法沒有科學(xué)依據(jù)。一個不真實的說法是，在皮膚上擦芝麻油可以阻止冠狀病毒。

If segments of the public turn to false treatments rather than follow the advice of trusted sources for avoiding illness (like frequent hand-washing with soap and water), it could cause "the disease to travel further and faster than it ordinarily would have," says Chakravorti.

查克拉沃蒂說，如果部分公眾求助于虛假治療，而不是聽從可靠來源的建議來避免疾病(比如經(jīng)常用肥皂和水洗手)，這可能會導(dǎo)致“疾病傳播得比正常情況下更遠、更快。”

There could be a political agenda behind the fake coronavirus news as well. Countries that are antagonistic toward China could try to hijack the conversation in hopes of creating chaos and eroding trust in the authorities, says Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux,research director for Harvard Belfer Center's Security and Global Health Project.

假冠狀病毒的新聞背后也可能有政治動機。哈佛大學(xué)貝爾弗中心安全與全球衛(wèi)生項目的研究主任瑪格麗特·布爾多博士說，對中國持敵對態(tài)度的國家可能會試圖劫持對話，以期制造混亂，削弱人們對中國當局的信任。