As the coronavirus epidemic continues to escalate around the world, false claims and misinformation have also gone viral.
With the role of reporters even more important during such a crisis, there is a heightened responsibility to not fall for conspiracy theories and fake news.
Daniel Funke, fact-checker at PolitiFact, has a seven-point plan to prevent you from spreading misinformation in this article.
Although we may not be health experts by trade, Funke advises learning the basics of the disease to make such false claims easier to spot.
"What are the symptoms? How does it spread? What diseases is it similar to? The more basic information you have about the disease, the better prepared you'll be to spot online misinformation."
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