MANILA, PHILIPPINES — As the Philippines started rolling out its vaccination program against COVID-19, the country also started seeing an overwhelming amount of misinformation on feed shared by friends, families, and colleagues. Posts of how vaccines can turn people into zombies or alter DNA— all of which have been debunked by the experts. With creators of fake information getting savvier and more creative copying identities of credible sources of information, things can be overwhelming and confusing for many. Even to the best of everyone’s abilities, fake news may still prevail.
But fake news isn’t just turning people into fools. Getting tricked by them would also endanger real lives, putting people at more risk in catching COVID-19 and preventing individuals from making a fully informed decision on whether one should or should not get vaccinated.
It is crucial to get relevant, timely, and accurate information on COVID-19 vaccine from reliable sources no less. The best thing to do is to stay out of the platforms where fake news is rampant. Instead of sifting through social media channels that may be littered with baseless rumors on the pandemic, you can get updates from the likes of the Department of Health (DOH) straight to Viber chats.
When the pandemic hit, Viber had become a go-to platform for credible organizations to spread vetted information and debunk myths and misinformation on the new disease. For starters, DOH launched its own Viber Community at the start of the quarantine to post timely updates on the country’s COVID-19 situation. It has become one of the most popular Viber Communities in the Philippines with over 2.4 million subscribers.
DOH has also been using Viber for its RESBAKUNA: Kasangga ng BIDA! Campaign to provide more Filipinos life-saving info regarding the vaccine by updating its KIRA (Katuwang na Impormasyon para sa Responsableng Aksyon) Viber Bot .
You can simply click on KIRA’s Alamin tab and the bot will then send a link to an educational video by Dr. Beverly Ho, the Director of the DOH Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control bureaus, who will provide answers to the top frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the vaccine. Some of these FAQs include: “Why is it important to get vaccinated against COVID-19? What are the vaccines available in the Philippines? How much should we pay to get the vaccines?”
Apart from DOH, you can also find the World Health Organization (WHO) and some of the top local news organizations on Viber. Whether they have a Chatbot or a Community, you can easily verify it’s them if they have a blue check beside their name. As organizations have the option to limit posting on these spaces, you won’t have to worry about getting tricked by fake news when keeping yourself updated about the pandemic.
