Getting caught with Covid chismis

WHAT travels faster than the coronavirus (Covid-19) is rumors. Like last week, news broke that one person in Davao died of Covid-19 after a return trip from Manila. That news was spread on Facebook, the default “news source” of everyone. Just before you can ask who, where, when, why, how, everyone was panicking in Toril because Facebook said he lived in Toril.

It took a while before news reporters could get hold of the story. The facts are: the patient died of pneumonia, but his test results still haven’t yet arrived. And his family has observed self-quarantine just to be sure. No Covid-19 confirmation yet.

This week’s Covid-19 story is about the sabungero. The city government issued an advisory on Monday advising cockfighters and fans who attended the derby in Matina Galleria early this month should stay in self-quarantine and report to doctors if they showed signs of Covid-19. Now everyone is worried when they see a person in the neighborhood holding a cock.

I’ve seen this kind of panic last year when Facebook exploded on the hospital case of a child who died of meningococcemia. Even if it was a single case and it was contained, the Facebook version stuck on everyone’s mind about the hospital going into a panic and placing people into quarantine.

For the nth time, we always tell people to get news from news sources and not from the silingan or the friend on Facebook. But it seems, this tsismis culture is something peculiar here in this city. Why does it thrive in a city that is growing? Maybe our development has not developed a culture of relying on science and definitive sources of information.

There’s also something particular too on how radio journalists also blast stories even without confirming them. Something like entertainment before information comes first. But I also note even our news is just tracking the numbers and the quarantine policies.

I feel we need more stories beyond that in order to survive in this quarantine times.

Both journalists and netizens must be able to give the public an accurate enough picture of how people are surviving these times, about how our communities are coping, adjusting to the new normal. And also point out anything untoward, from abuses or lapses in authorities and needs of the poor who are most affected by this lockdown.

Maybe in this way, chismis will die, and we stay alive with affirming stories.