Beyond the thousands of deaths and the millions of infected people, the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly transformed Western society. This virus has provoked the confinement of millions of people in their houses, the closure of bars, restaurants, and pubs, schools, museums, and theatres. However, for this post, I will focus on another side effect of the pandemic: the spread of canards, which flow even faster than the virus itself.

Fear and misinformation. An explosive combination that only rational and evidence-based thinking (aka science) can defuse. On the other hand, making up and sharing canards (either intentionally or accidentally) act as gasoline. Desperation might push us to make questionable decisions, but in most of these situations, the solution is worse than the problem. It is on our hand as a society to defeat these false arguments by using scientific evidence and most importantly, stop sharing them!

There far are too many conspiracy theories and misinformation regarding the COVID-19 (there is even a Wikipedia page about this!): “COVID-19 is a bioengineered virus designed by *insert name of any country* to control population“, “COVID-19 uses 5G waves to spread“, “Children are immune to COVID-19“, “Drinking alcohol, bleach or disinfectant can prevent/treat COVID-19” (by far my favourite one, though quite close to “drink camel urine to cure coronavirus“). All these LIES are harmful as they increase hate, distrustfulness, anxiety, and fear, place in risk the safety of the whole population, and can kill yourself!

Therefore, please check the certainty of the information you read on social media before you share it, prevent other people from doing so, and remember than bleach can kill the virus but will also you if you drink it!