The coronavirus is spreading, and so is the panic-inducing media coverage.
As Neal Rothschild and Sara Fischer write in Axios, “Many of the coronavirus stories getting shared the most on social media are packaged to drive fear rather than build understanding about the illness.”
As coverage of the virus has taken over the internet and social media feeds, myths, misinformation and sensational headlines are proliferating. Google searches for coronavirus have increased 8x and social media interactions have increased 7x, Rothschild and Fischer report.
Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., an associate professor of public health at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, shared his advice: take a break from media.
“You have to stop scouring social media and the internet for the latest twists and turns,” Klapow told TODAY.
Read the full Axios article here.