It's time for 'My 2 Cents,' and I want to chat about what everyone is talking about: The Coronavirus.
So obviously the virus has been in the news every day, it's all over your social media pages and you've likely seen a lot of information - both factual and fake.
For example, articles or statistics from the CDC, FDA, or World Health Organization, they're reliable. Those agencies are tracking the virus all over the world and have teams of scientists and doctors verifying everything they release to the public. If it's coming from them, it's fact.
But a tweet from someone you don't know that is making wild statements, like one that wrongly claimed hand sanitizer is useless against the virus and only works against bacteria, those are not true. That tweet racked up a quarter of a million likes and nearly 100-thousand retweets before Twitter took it down.
*By the way: alcohol based sanitizer and soap both help ward off the virus.*
The issue is, when you believe posts like that and share them, or tell someone else about it, it spreads false information and that's extremely harmful. Bad information only leads to hysteria and devalues the real, science-backed facts that can keep us all healthy.
That's why here at WFMY News 2 we're committed to giving you the facts about Coronavirus and putting all of them into perspective so you feel informed... and not scared.
So spread good information, not fear-mongering click bait. That's 'My 2 Cents.'