The coronavirus disease or COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly across the world since early December 2019; and so are the false messages and misinformation associated with it. In an effort to combat the spread of false information and to raise awareness, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has joined the video-sharing platform, TikTok.
“We are joining TikTok to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice!” reads the post, with the first video on its account explaining: “How to protect yourself from the coronavirus”. In the video, Benedetta Allegranzi, the technical lead of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), offers tips to protect oneself from the virus and even demonstrates how to sneeze.
The second video on its account explains how effective it is to use face masks.
@who We are joining @tiktok to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice! Our first post: How to protect yourself from ##coronavirus ?
♬ original sound - who
@who When & how should masks be worn in order to protect against the new ##coronavirus ?
♬ original sound - who
The WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been working extensively over the last few weeks to dispel fake news and information regarding the coronavirus outbreak, which has been circulating on various social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and now TikTok. According to the Verge, the video-sharing platform has been seeing a host of memes about the viral outbreak, wherein some can be seen pretending to be infected.
The WHO has already been using Instagram and Twitter extensively to ensure that more people are made aware of the current outbreak and the ways in which they can protect themselves.
The WHO had declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ (PHEIC) in January after initially deciding not to do so. The decision was taken after WHO leaders felt that countries with weaker healthcare systems would not be able to protect themselves against the virus if it were to quickly spread.
COVID-19 is caused by a strain of a virus called the coronavirus. The virus gets its name from ‘crown-like’ spikes present on its surface. Earlier, other strains of coronavirus were responsible for the 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak and the 2013 Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak. There is no cure or vaccine and the treatment for COVID-19 is largely based on controlling symptoms.