Covid-19 Meets the 2020 Election: the Perfect Storm for Misinformation
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Thursday, July 9, 2020 Dhul-Qa’da 18, 1441 AH Doha today: 310 - 400 Convergence COVER STORY Covid-19 meets the 2020 election: The perfect storm for misinformation. P4-5 REVIEW BACK PAGE Hanks returns to World War II as a A home away struggling Naval commander. from home. Page 14 Page 16 2 GULF TIMES Thursday, July 9, 2020 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT SERIES TO BINGE WATCH ON AMAZON PRIME PRAYER TIME Fajr 3.20am Shorooq (sunrise) 4.52am Zuhr (noon) 11.40am Asr (afternoon) 3.05pm Maghreb (sunset) 6.29pm Isha (night) 7.59pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Absentia declared dead. Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the Qatar Airways 44496000 DIRECTION: Matthew Cirulnick, Gaia Violo woods, with no memory of what happened during the time Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 CAST: Stana Katic, Patrick Heusinger, Neil Jackson she went missing. She comes back to a husband who has Qatar General Electricity and SYNOPSIS: She disappeared. No one heard from her for remarried, and whose wife is raising her son. She will have Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 six years. No one knows what happened to her, not even her. to navigate in her new reality, and she will soon fi nd herself Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 An FBI Agent tracking a Boston serial killer vanishes, and is implicated in a new series of murders. 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 ote Unquo Qu te “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu Community Editor Kamran Rehmat Comrade Detective promoted Communist ideals. The action-packed and blood- e-mail: [email protected] DIRECTION: Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka soaked fi rst season fi nds Detectives Gregor Anghel and Joseph Telephone: 44466405 CAST: Channing Tatum, Florin Piersic Jr, Joseph Gordon- Baciu investigating the murder of fellow offi cer Nikita Ionescu Fax: 44350474 Levitt and, in the process, unraveling a subversive plot to destroy SYNOPSIS: Parody comedy designed to resemble a non- their country that is fueled by what-else-but the greatest existent gritty 1980’s Cold War Romanian police show that enemy: Capitalism. Thursday, July 9, 2020 GULF TIMES 3 BODY & MIND COMMUNITY Stay on track with medications Keeping up with a medication schedule can be challenging during the Covid-19 pandemic. These tips can help medicine. Or, try tying your meds to other habits. For example, you might leave your morning meds by your coff eepot. Use reminders If you’re mostly at home, placing sticky notes near your medicines may be enough of an alert to keep you on track. Pillboxes are another low-tech tool. For a more high-tech option, set alarms or timers on your phone to remind you to take your medication. Your pharmacy may also off er a reminder service through phone calls and text messages. If your schedule varies from day to day, this service may be especially helpful. Stay ahead on refi lls Some drug companies have shifted their focus toward helping with Covid-19. In addition, some people are taking drugs not yet proved to prevent or treat Covid-19. These situations may make it hard to get the medicine you need. Without access, your routine may lapse. A week or two before you need a refi ll, call your pharmacy to make sure your medication is available or order online. If there’s a shortage, your doctor may suggest other options. Before you pick up a prescription, check to see if your CREATE A SCHEDULE: If you take several medicines throughout the day, consider creating a schedule and posting it where you’ll see it often. pharmacy has drive-through or curbside pickup options. Or check with your pharmacy about mail he Covid-19 pandemic order or delivery. Ordering a 90- has turned life upside day supply of drugs instead of a down for many people. 30-day supply may be another way You may be working to stay on track. Tfrom home, not working If you run out of refi lls and can’t at all or have children at home see your doctor in person, ask if who don’t usually live with you, you can have a phone or online such as college kids. Juggling all visit instead. of the changes that the Covid-19 Cost can make it challenging pandemic has caused can make it to keep a steady supply of challenging to stay on top of your medication. If you’re having medication routine. trouble paying for your medicine, In addition, the Covid-19 ask your doctor about lower cost pandemic may cause you to feel alternatives. A generic version stressed, afraid and less hopeful. may cost much less. Your doctor These feelings may lead you to or pharmacy may also recommend make choices that worsen your organisations that can help cover medical condition, including the cost of medications. Drug not following your medication manufacturers also sometimes regimen as closely. Cost may also REFILL: A week or two before you need a refill, call your pharmacy to make sure your medication is available or off er discounts or programmes. be an issue, especially if you’re order online. unemployed. Reach out if you need to Whether you’re taking one medications from your doctor. This if you should make any changes. throughout the day, consider If you’re struggling to manage medication or several, it’s provides a clear roadmap for your If you can’t see your doctor in creating a schedule and posting it your medications, don’t isolate important to continue taking medication routine. Make sure person, a phone call or a video or where you’ll see it often. If you take yourself. Reach out to your doctor, them as directed by your doctor. it matches the drugs you have at online visit may be an option. These several medications, your doctor pharmacist, and family or friends Medicine helps keep medical home. types of telehealth visits can be or pharmacist may be able to help who care about you. With the conditions from getting worse. If you have questions about the helpful for conditions that need to with a schedule or off er ways to support of others and a solid Try these suggestions to help medicines you’re taking, call your be monitored, such as high blood make your routine simpler. plan in place, you can continue keep your routine on track. doctor or pharmacist. He or she pressure. If your daily routine has changed, to manage your medications and can guide you on any concerns you look to regular points, such as take good care of your health and Start with a list have, including risks involved with Map it out mealtimes and bedtime. These well-being. — Mayo Clinic News Have an up-to-date list of Covid-19. He or she can also tell you If you take several medicines can serve as cues for when to take Network/TNS 4 GULF TIMES Thursday, July 9, 2020 COMMUNITY COVER STORY After the pandemic the ‘infodemic’ Social media is the perfect platform for lightning-fast communication — and manipulation by people seeking to profit, sow discord or promote a political agenda. Factor in society’s preexisting fault lines, and you’ve got those “perfect storm,” conditions, writes Sandi Doughton hen a mysterious a co-founder of the centre. As time goes on, what virus began racing “As time goes on, what we’re around the globe seeing is the convergence between we’re seeing is the early this year, Covid-19 and election 2020,” she Wscientists at the said. And that means the fl ood convergence between University of Washington’s newly of half-truths, distortions and created Center for an Informed fl at-out lies the World Health Covid-19 and election Public described it as the perfect Organization calls an “infodemic” 2020. Things are becoming storm for bogus information, both is only going to intensify. “Things innocent and malicious. are becoming more politicised,” more politicised So what’s the situation six Starbird said. months later, now that the The UW centre was launched coronavirus pandemic is playing in December to study the ways — Kate Starbird, Co-founder, out in tandem with a passionate misinformation spreads and push for racial justice and the the best methods to combat it. Center for an Informed opening volleys of the presidential The team was gearing up for race? The perfect superstorm? the census and the presidential ‘ Public ’ Pretty much, says Kate Starbird, contest, which they expected to Thursday, July 9, 2020 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY be their fi rst test cases. “Then the pandemic hit and “It’s really hard everything was crazy,” said director Jevin West, who also co-teaches the to determine UW’s popular “Calling B.S.” class whether where students learn to distinguish truth from spin. “This is like nothing something’s a bot I’ve ever seen in terms of the volume, and it’s growing massively or not. The thing every day,” he said. A lot of coronavirus that scares me misinformation began as honest the most is that attempts to share knowledge and help others, Starbird said.