Infodemic and the spread of fake news in the COVID 19 era
Saturday 14 March, while the pandemic due to SARSCoV 2 spread widely in Europe, the French Minister of Health, Oliver Veran tweeted: 'The intake of anti inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, cortisone, could be a factor in worsening the infection. If you have a fever, take acetaminophen. If you are already taking anti inflammatory drugs or in doubt, ask your doctor for advice' [1] As the hours go by, the tweet garnered the consent of more and more 'followers' and, 3 days later, the 're tweets' were over 40 000. The University Hospital of Vaud in Lausanne among others considered the news as authentic and correct, so claims: 'For the current state of knowledge, the use of anti inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, etc. is not recommended in case of influenza like illness possibly caused by COVID 19. Paracetamol is recommended in the event of fever requiring treatment' In the transmission of the news, one of the 'accused' classes of drugs was exonerated (e.g. any reference to cortisone disappeared) At the same time, the preference given to paracetamol became quite a strong recommendation [2] The British Medical Journal also felt compelled to relaunch the news, reporting some expert opinions on this matter [3]
European journal of emergency medicine official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine