COVID-19 “INFODEMIC”: THE CASE OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

  • The authors:
    Georgy Kutyrev
  • Pages: 763-771
  • Section: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, DIGITAL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
  • URL: http://conferences-ifl.rudn.ru/2686-8199-2020-7-763-771/
  • DOI: 10.22363/2686-8199-2020-7-763-771

The coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, 2019nCoV), which, according to the Chinese office of the World Health Organization (WHO), began to spread from Wuhan no later than December 2019, now has secured its place among global security challenges. Scientists are trying to develop a vaccine against the 2019-nCoV virus, and WHO is helping them. According to the Nature magazine, in April 2020, more than 90 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 were in the development of a number of pharmaceutical companies (for example, Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline) and research groups at universities around the world. Researchers tested various technologies, some of which had not previously been used in licensed vaccines. For example, creating a vaccine based on the DNA or RNA of a virus. These methods are very tempting because they can produce a vaccine in three months. But so far they have not proved their effectiveness.

In some countries, at first, there was significant progress in the fight against the pandemic COVID-19 (Italy, France, Spain), while in others (Brazil, Argentina, Peru) it reached monstrous proportions. However, as soon as the authorities began to weaken the quarantine regime (June-July 2020) and life began to return to a normal rhythm, new outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 appeared with the beginning of autumn, marking the “second wave”. The WHO accepts that for 11 nations in Europe there is an especially hazardous circumstance, a huge flood, which, without control, will by and by place wellbeing frameworks in Europe on the edge of the pit. The situation was largely complicated by the Schengen rules, which regulated the abolition of border controls at internal borders and the resumption of the tourist season from July 1, 2020.

An “infodemic” is an overabundance of information that occurs during an COVID-19 epidemic. As it was mentioned in September 2020 by the WHO organization the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the first pandemic in history wherein which technology and social media (LiveJournal, LiveInternet, Twitter, Facebook, ect.) are being utilized for an enormous scope to guard individuals, educated, gainful and associated a similar time, the innovation we depend on to keep associated and educated is empowering and intensifying an infodemic that keeps on sabotaging the worldwide reaction and imperils measures to control the pandemic. During pandemic time, more so than in normal life, people need accurate and correct information to adapt their behaviour.

In this paper, we will try to outline some trends in the fight against the pandemic within the countries of the Iberian Peninsula, special attention will be paid to information coverage of this process and misinformation (fake news phenomenon). This makes it difficult for people to find reliable resources and reliable guidance when needed.

Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, Spain, Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, EU, infodemic, fake news, WHO

Georgy Kutyrev

National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) Moscow, Russia

Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) Moscow, Russia

e-mail: kutyrevgeorge@gmail.com ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5580-8822

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