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Missinformation Mashup

1.-

The virus which is actually spreading trough the world is named “SARS-CoV-2″ and not COVID-19, which is the name of the respiratory illness caused by the virus. One can not find this information easily because all the media has been using COVID-19 to refer to the virus during more than two months, thus suddenly changing its name would confuse the population, but it is still worth mentioning it. 

2.-

Have you read one of the following (or similar) headlines?:

-Coronavirus does not spread through air according to experts.

-Coronavirus does spread through air according to experts.

The real answer to both of this headlines is that not even the experts have  a 100% sure answer to that question. There are several investigations going on about that and the scientists are divided into the two categories trying to prove that they are right and the others are wrong (always with knowledge as the main goal). For the next time that you read an article claiming something and even if it is “supported” by experts, try to investigate a little further. Nevertheless, being healthy and safe will most likely be more effective than using masks but not being cautious.

3.-

Washing your hands cleans the virus.

Or does it?

In reality, even though the message is really good and in the end is right, that is not the real case, and it is important to know it in order to protect yourself. What soap does to your skins is to remove grease, and in the case that the virus particles were attached to your skin, this virus would loose its grease. No, it is not like the virus lost weigh, but something similar. The virus has a grease protective layer that makes it resist external threats and prevents it from passing out quickly. The virus’ life expectancy without the grease cape is lowered down by over 600 times, so instead of being able to roam for 10 hours (on average) the virus will die within the next 10 minutes of being exposed to the outer world.

So, even if you were washing your hands and being safe, the virus could still get into you and for 10 minutes have a chance to find a cell-host to reproduce. However this is very unlikely, but I wanted you to meditate about why you have been washing your hands, and if you were aware of the effect it had on the virus. 

In the end I just want to say that, even when all of this is over, remember to stay healthy and wash your hands frequently. Not having risk of being infected is not an excuse to not being hygienic. 

Stay Safe.

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Mark down the date where the first online manifestation took place

April the 8th it was the day that, in YouTube, the world first online manifestation happened. This piece of news has so many layers of depth that a whole essay could be written about it, although I will not do that for today. 

Is it really that difficult to realize how inaccurate a live stream video on YouTube is? I refuse to believe that it is the case. The manifestation happened at 19:00 CEST and it was presented by no other than Alias Almise, a twitter star who defamed the former mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena in Twitter, claiming that she robbed and used a breathing machine from the public healthcare, to keep it into her house and use it since she was supposedly infected with COVID-19. This person is already sued by defamation, so it is a great way to start the streaming. The direct then was followed by a dialogue between two Vox supporters in the media, arguing how the government should be shut dow and taken by the army, to which I can only think how good that would be the the state of rights here in Spain. And later they had a woman who worked in the Community of Madrid’s government during the time prior to the pandemic. She said how helpless they were against the spread prior the emergency quarantine started, and how they did not have enough power to purchase medical material to help the infected people survive the disease. This is what I like to call a bunch of fallacies. 

Regarding now the value of a manifestation such as that, which they already call a success, I highly doubt they even know what success means. 458.000 People simultaneously connected in a YouTube live stream, considering how anticipated the event was and even considering that more than 70% of the population of Spain is not working not going out of their houses on a daily basis it is just ridiculous to call that a success. Not only that, but many people could log in with different devices, and many others may be logged in but just out of curiosity or to peek how of a comic event was held in internet. And the most devastating news is that people from all over the world can log in, yet not even half a million people are taking this manifestation seriously enough to just get in and leave a like or simply watch the whole thing. And all of this is not even considering that there might be bots implied into this aswell, as we already know from Vox in twitter who have an army of what used to be called Egg-accounts, recently created by middle eastern people who receive a payment by internet bot companies to create tens of accounts and give likes or retweets at will. 

However we have got to look at it with a little bit of humor and not be so harsh about it as I have been during all of the post. I personally remember some random person in the chat during the livestream, doing a Spanish Republic flag with colored hearts, but then immediately saying “Viva VOX, viva el Rey!” (”Hail Vox, hail the King!”) followed by crown emojis, that was just hilarious. 

In the end, as I intended to when writing the Heading of this post, I want everyone to Mark down the date where the first online manifestation took place, and remember it as the day that nothing but memes and laughs happened.

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It is grateful to see that at least during this period of quarantine people are a little bit more concerned and aware about fake news. The sad part it is that at the same pace, the fake news are increasing in number due to the amount of free time that the people who craft them have now (or at least that is what I believe)

I hope that once all of this is over the population will have learned to detect a fake news and to avoid them whenever it is possible. Let this situation be an opportunity to grow as persons and as a society. 

To read more information about this Tweet, here is a link to RTVE webpage with an article that covers this piece of news. Sadly it is in Spanish, but I am sure that it can be translated with Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or whatever your web browser it is.

https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20200327/policia-nacional-lanza-guia-contra-bulos-fake-news-del-coronavirus/2010910.shtml

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CoVID-19 reflection

This last week has been a blast, a non-stop chain of news (hopefully some good news). The whole situation escalated so quickly that it is hard to believe what is happening right now. But I would like to dedicate this space today to have a little reflection.

This week on Monday, I was preparing a presentation for the International Studies class. That same evening I went to Mercadona to buy some milk, juice, and bread that I needed. Around 20 hours in the afternoon I received a call from my mother, who told me that classes were suspended in la Comunidad de Madrid, from kindergarten to University. My immediate reaction was to tell her that it was fake news, because often she sends me news that are not real, and I have to correct her and tell her to go find a news source that does not lie. But this time it was different, and after me checking all of the new sources on internet, their webpages and even twitter accounts, I realized that it was real. After that I received videos from friends who went to Mercadona just three hours after I did, and it was empty, but full of people trying to fill their shopping cart with non-perishable goods, toilet paper, and liters of water (even though here in Madrid, tap water is almost as good as bottled water). My reaction to this situation was to call Alicia, not because she gives me hope or could calm me, but just to discuss the situation, which at this point was unbelievable. During the call we agreed that it was crazy that Universities were closed, but not public transport, and we were constantly pressing refresh on our gmail accounts to see what was the official CIS communicate. We were worried about that presentation that we had to do for Tuesday, but we still completed it. And at some point during the call Alicia sent me a video from a “doctor” whose name was Rodolfo Llinás, and who was giving advice to spot if any person had CoVID-19. Again, as it is normal, I checked if that information was true, and the first thing I did was search his name, that lead me to dozens of webpages with headings that versed “No crean el video de una persona haciéndose pasar for Roberto Llinás” Translated: “Do not trust the video where one person is impersonating Roberto Llinás”. Therefore, even before having finished watching the video, I told Alicia that it was fake, and that she should warn every other person whom she had sent that video. 

However, despite everything that has happened during this week, I am to some extent happy with how the situation has been managed by CIS. I was a little bit skeptic with the online classes, but now that they are cancelled in all of Spain, many friends have told me that they will most likely have to continue the semester during summer. That is why now I appreciate being able to do online classes. I also wanted to mention that today at 14 hours, the government’s president Pedro Sánchez has communicated that the “estate of alarm” will be operational by tomorrow and thus, we should not leave our houses until quarantine has finished. All the goods of primary needs will still be purchasable for any person, and we should only leave the house in order to buy this products whenever NEEDED. 

Look at this situation from a positive perspective, and think that we can still do our classes. We can keep up to date with the studies, maybe read a book or two, finish that TV shows, & series, play video games, and more. With so many alternatives at home, who would like to leave?

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Echo chambers in the debate

Yesterday, 18th of February, a debate about bullfighting was held on CIS. My expectations were really high considering the deep bullfighting culture that many students have into their roots. And it turned out to be better than I expected in terms of the debate, but in terms of the audience, nothing too spectacular. 

The debate was good and fair, with a small inconvenience for the team that was against bullfighting because one team member could not come. Apart from that, both teams had good interventions and others not so remembered. It ended with a tie, just for your information, which I believe it had nothing to do with reality, but that is not how the debates at CIS work.

What I found out to be the most interesting in reality was the reactions of the audience, and specially the reactions of Maria, one of the team members that were against bullfighting. Most of the audience was clearly in a position that supports bullfighting, and considering that the result of the debate is based on the audience’s opinion I’d say that it was a clear win for the team that was against. Apart from that, Maria’s reactions called my attention early on during the debate, not just her facial expressions but also her nodding during the opposing team’s intervention were revelatory on her point of view, which I believed it tilted her intervention towards a more weak way of attacking the opponent’s team and the arguments seemed as if it had not been revised before by the rest of the team members. But in my opinion what finally tilted the course of the debate was the intervention of Cristina, who by the way always does amazing speeches, that gave the team against a glimpse of possibility of winning or at least not loosing by a rush. 

In the end, the intention of the debate was to test each team’s speech level, plus capacities of providing solid and convincing arguments. But knowing that not a single person of the audience changed its mind makes me a little sad. Not only because the team against provided solid arguments but because the audience was crying over the arguments provided by the team for, (weak arguments objectively) as if they were revelations of the 21st century. On the other side, I believe that no one in the audience that previously was against bullfighting changed its mind either. So instead of a tie as the final result, I’d call it a loose / loose, even considering the effort put by both teams, but it has nothing to do with them, it is just how the system works. No one in the audience broke out of its echo chambers.

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Political Left-Right Spectrum

Having a binary spectrum to divide the ideology that belongs to one or another specific political ideals is somehow outdated and archaic. Even if we try to depict it in a function based system where you can point our to which ideals some movements belong or are closer to. We must work over the statistics, and make assumptions, that although they are usually close to to truth, are non defining. 

Yesterday late I was chatting with my friends from Mallorca, because we have a group together and we are over 20 people there. As if it was a picture of life itself, we have all kind of ideologies within the group, and we often investigate (me and my close friends who I mentioned in the last entry) which group respects each others ideas, and with one gives meaningless opinions or simply get offended by other’s ideas. In the case of yesterday, one girl sent a mug with the flag of Spain in it, and the black eagle, with a cite that versed “Esta es mi única patria, arriba España” Translated: “This is my only homeland, arriba España”. After this message with no other intention than making humor, many friends replied things such as: “Nice mug, to throw it to someone’s head” or things like that. Again, a comment with no other intention than making fun of the picture. This kind of comments were followed by two right-winged persons of the group that were offended because their ideals were not being respected, and they started insulting personally to the other group members and their ideals. They even started an argument over the human rights and how, because no country follows them at their fullest, they are worth nothing. 

In conclusion, my friends and I realized that in this case, the individuals that got offended earlier were the ones that often mock the left-winged persons for being easily offended.

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Discussion about Echo Chambers

So, today I was having a meal with my two closest friends and my girlfriend in Burger King, and as it is expected here in Spain, we spend almost double the time talking after the meal, rather than leaving the table free. Not like there was people outside waiting or anything, but it is usual to stay seated for a long time after a meal. 

Talking and talking, and changing topics like it was a Holden Texas poker game, I realized that I had to do a post about echo chambers, and days earlier I mentioned to them in a Skype call, and asked them if they wanted to give me their point of view. So I started by explaining them what an echo chamber is and then asked them what kind of media do they get the new from and if they believe it is an echo chamber for them or not. 

Adrian, said that he usually contrasts all the news he sees, and does already know which news-sites are biased. He said that his golden rule it is to spot if the name of the media ends with “digital” or even easier, just read the header and if it has adjectives towards any person it is likely to be biased. As an example he gave us a piece of news that he read in “Elespañol.com” that versed: Abascal, el ‘toro’ de gimnasio, también lee. Translated: Abascal, the gym’s bull, does also read. We could not hold back our tears after reading such article, it was really hilarious. 

Fede reported to us that he does not look for news, and like him, Natalia does not look for news either. Then, what we did was look in their feed or news apps (that often uses cookies) on their phones and find out what kind of news were they receiving and what could we know about their cookies profile on the internet. Natalia read one header in her Google news app that versed: “Sánchez  retiró el helicóptero que buscaba al desaparecido de Mallorca para usarlo él” Translated: “Sánchez removed the helicopter that was searching the missing person in Mallorca to use it himself”. After reading this we were rather sceptic with this piece of news. After a few minutes not finding any other source for this news we considered this as a fake new, and warned Natalia that she should be aware of this kind of information that she receives. And also, a few hours after reading that piece of news we have found out that the rescue team was not even going to use the helicopter today, instead they were going to search underwater with remote controlled submarines. 

In conclusion, now we know that information is always subject to change, and just reading a header does not provide enough information about what really happens. We must choose carefully the new sources that we read and always contrast with other new sources to seek the truth, not what we want to read.