Maria Ressa and Seema Yasmin in Conversation: Reporting Barriers During COVID-19
We have so many things coming up I don't even know where to start. How about with an event on reporting challenges and press freedom during COVID-19 with Maria Ressa and Dr. Seema Yasmin: We'll cover topics including science journalism, reporting in precarious press conditions and the importance of independent information during crises.
We look forward to hosting this important session at a time when civil liberties feel increasingly under attack in many parts of the world.
As usual, this week we have a selection of newsworthy highlights from the COVID-19 Expert Database. If you know of any newsrooms, fact-checking organizations or other health information leaders that could use this database, please send us a message — we'd love to collaborate!
Upcoming event
Maria Ressa and Seema Yasmin in Conversation: Reporting Barriers During COVID-19
Thursday 18 June 2020
8am San Francisco / 11am New York / 4pm London / 8:30pm Delhi / 11pm Manila
Join veteran journalist and Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa in conversation with Seema Yasmin, an Emmy Award-winning medical journalist, to discuss reporting barriers during COVID-19. June 18 on Zoom.
Top COVID-19 questions
Journalist and medical doctor, Dr. Seema Yasmin shares weekly highlights from Meedan's COVID-19 Expert Database
How can I protect myself if I am attending a protest or mass gathering?
From the COVID-19 Expert Database: Attending protests or mass gatherings can increase the risk of catching COVID-19 or spreading the disease. This is especially so given the large amount of people who are infected with COVID-19 but do not have any symptoms (asymptomatic), and may feel well enough to attend a mass gathering like a protest or march...
Seema says: "Because no activity is entirely safe, public health uses harm prevention strategies to lower the risk of infection in certain scenarios. Because people will attend mass gatherings, it’s important to share harm reduction strategies such as mask wearing, silent protests, banners instead of chants, and physically-distanced protests, to lower the risk of new cases."
What do we know about why COVID-19 impacts Black Americans more aggressively than others?
From the COVID-19 Expert Database: The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans as a result of existing structural and racial disparities in the healthcare system is well documented. Despite comprising only 22% of New York City’s population, African Americans constituted 28% of fatalities from the virus as of mid-April. In Chicago, African Americans are 30% of the population, but 70% of the fatalities. This is likely due to several factors. Racial disparities in access to healthcare contribute to lower quality care for African American populations. African Americans are more likely to live in densely populated neighborhoods with limited healthcare access, which heighten exposure to the virus. Similarly, they face higher rates of pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, which heighten the risk of complications from COVID-19. Research also suggests African Americans face racial bias in the healthcare system and are less likely to have access to timely testing, which may also contribute to a higher rate of mortality from the virus.
Seema says: "The deaths of Black Americans from COVID-19 at 2-7 times the rate of White Americans have been contextualized, in some instances, as being due to the individual behaviors of Black people and something inherently different about the biology of Black people’s bodies. These racist myths ignore the structural, systemic inequalities which play a far greater role in health than individual behaviors. Zip code is a better predictor of life expectancy than diet. Access to education and healthcare is more impactful than genetics. Black Americans are more likely to die of COVID-19 - not because of individual behaviors - but because of long-standing, well documented factors including the impact of racism on the body, lack of access to health care, and racism within the medical establishment which can manifest as the withholding of medicine from Black patients. As fact-checkers, it is important we debunk the notion of race, explain that it is a social construct invented in the 1700s to arbitrarily classify humans, and has been used and perpetuated to justify the enslavement of Black people and uphold a system of oppression. "
Will recent protests lead to an outbreak or second wave of infections?
From the COVID-19 Expert Database: Large gatherings of people in close contact for a prolonged period of time does increase risk for transmission of respiratory viruses. Outdoor protests do allow for natural ventilation and the use of masks, eye protection, and social distancing efforts can help reduce risk. While it is unknown if protests will lead to a large surges, it is possible there will be additional cases in the 2 weeks following protests.
Seema says: "Outdoor mass gatherings that limit physical distancing have the potential to contribute to new infections, although dispersion of virus particles in free flowing air can lower transmission, as can wearing a mask, eye protection, and using signs instead of shouting. Policing practices such as kettling, tear gassing crowds, and jailing multiple protesters in a single cell, can contribute to disease transmission. Tear gas is known to cause long-term respiratory disease, including asthma and chronic bronchitis, and can increase the risk of infection as it causes coughing and inflammation of the eyes and airways. It is important to contextualize new clusters in the wider picture of some states reopening before cases were decreasing, protests to life shelter-in-place orders, and people flocking to shared spaces as soon as lockdown was eased in some regions."
Top stories
Misinformation About George Floyd Protests Surges on Social Media (New York Times)
According to the media insights company Zignal Labs, misinformation surrounding George Floyd's death and the ensuing protests have outpaced the volume of online posts and media mentions about last year’s protests in Hong Kong and Yellow Vest movement in France.
“At its peak on Friday, Mr. Floyd and the protests around his death were mentioned 8.8 million times, said Zignal Labs, which analyzed global television broadcasts and social media. In contrast, news of the Hong Kong protests reached 1.5 million mentions a day and the Yellow Vest movement 941,000." — Davey Alba, New York Times
Business is booming for India’s quack YouTube doctors (Rest of World)
India has long had problems with unlicensed doctors selling their services. According to the Indian Medical Association, there are around 1,000,000 quack doctors in the country, and a 2016 World Health Organization report estimates that nearly 58 percent of Indian doctors practicing Western medicine are unlicensed. Quacks wield huge influence over certain sectors of the electorate, which makes it hard for the government to muster the political will to address the problem.
"The lack of online news regulation in India has also coincided with another recent development — the rediscovery of traditional medicine. In the absence of a vaccine or proven treatment for COVID-19, many Indians who cannot afford Western drugs or medical procedures are turning to the Ayurveda, Siddha, or Unani systems for relief. Digital influencers have seized on this interest to promote their own unsubstantiated claims and “alternative” cures. Sometimes, they simply tell people to follow accepted advice, like eating fresh fruits and vegetables, yet more often, their suggestions are not so innocuous. “We have seen the resurgence in national pride leading to a lot of pseudoscience,” says Rajneil Kamath, the publisher of Newschecker, a website that combats disinformation in eight Indian languages." — Nilesh Christopher, Rest of World
Reuters Tomorrow’s News 2020 survey reveals accuracy and impartiality as the ‘defining’ factors of trusted content (Reuters)
Business leaders say that trusted and intelligent content are a top factor when turning to online news brands, according to a new report from Reuters. Half of the individuals surveyed said they expecting their news consumption to grow.
"The fourth edition of Tomorrow’s News, a global survey of 1,700 professionals on Reuters.com from December 2019 to January 2020, also finds that those surveyed turn to news brands first for ‘trusted content in a trusted environment’ (87%) and have a more favorable opinion of a brand if it appears on a trusted news site (64%). Furthermore, 57% also agree that ‘the advertising content seen on a trusted news site can influence opinion of the news brand’.
Those surveyed consider accuracy and impartiality as the leading factors in what makes a news story trustworthy and are largely skeptical of news on social media—with 84% of those agreeing that fake news has made them doubt the reliability of news stories shared on social media." — Reuters
What’s new at Meedan
Highlights from our team
Our CEO Ed Bice writes about how we need to demand more from our institutions and our leaders. "Systemic injustices ingrain these abuses into the structure of our societies, into the mechanics of how power, money, opportunity, and—as the past months have made so brutally apparent—health is accessed and distributed," he writes.
You can also read more on our blog about the event with Maria Ressa and Dr. Seema Yasmin.