Ignorance may be a bliss but, knowledge spun out of ignorance is sometimes dangerous. That is what happened in last four months of the Corona outbreak leading to several confusions and uncalled for worries.

 In the month  of March Corona scare shook all of us .  Life was restricted to four walls. To know the ground realities people  were glued to television & mobile sets. Trouble-shooting  tips were disseminated among the masses, inadvertently or otherwise, creating more harm than good. Reasons were that, it were all generated through conjectures only.   

About use of mask.

With the rising Covid cases, mask has become a compulsory gear to keep the virus at bay and N95 was rated to be the top one by none other than the experts. But, surprisingly the usefulness of the above mask came under a shadow of doubt and was discarded like demonetization in a huff.  ”When Corona was at peak variety of masks were available. Among these N95 valved  mask have drawn user attention but its sudden disapproval  has baffled people. Heavy loss was incurred by pilling up the stock” said Deepak medicine shop owner .

Irrelivant  whatsaap message.

Amid all fear, whtsaap was flooded with useful/frivolous messages which  gained momentum  . Like hot water treatment kill the virus, drinking lots of water flushes out virus, doctored videos on food items have confused the society  & many more. “ I received messages from  family to drink plenty of water  to flush the virus. Blindly I followed which was a tiresome work and, of late, after verification I found virus is not drained out. ”said Rahul Samanta, a student .

Spread of virus in air.   

When a team of experts observed that Coronavirus is an airborne one and the WHO was noncommittal on its veracity,  people, till date are left in an animated suspense!  WHO never for once took any resolute stand  on that aspect.   ”Message spread like fire &  doubled the fears said Bibhuti Mishra adding that” Walking is a daily practice but after a announcement by officials, my family restricted me in house. Stopping  daily walking leads to mental and physical pressure like complex and claustrophobia ” said Bibhuti Mishra, a senior citizen. 

Television debate

No doubt television  played  a crucial role at this juncture to navigate people’s psyche .  India had battled various pandemic & epidemic in the past, but to handle this crisis experts were pooled in numbers for valuable opinions .” Without understanding its real characteristics or an empirical study, random tips were aired at several platforms.

Moreover TV channels  were busy  asking  premature questions to create sensation to jack the ratings but general people  were at the receiving end”  said Pushpasree Puhan, a home maker. 

Claim over corona medicine or vaccine.

From immunity tips like traditional herbs to homeopathic drugs, the entire gamut was abandoned  midway widening the divide between belief and disbelief.

Similarly Yog guru under flagship of Patanjali declared its first innovation. People felt relaxed but when ICMR rejected the claim, they were left dejected ” said  Ashok Das.

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