非洲人会影响经济，政治，国家安全和公共卫生。COVID-19的Infodecity成为一个问题，以至于the Royal Society and the British Academy发布了一份2020年10月的报告，指出了其对疫苗部署的重大影响，并认可起诉那些传播错误信息的立法。
As a研究艾滋病毒的研究人员在艾滋病大流行中，我感到一种déjàvu的感觉，因为covid-19的虚假信息传播了。自艾滋病出现以来的40年中，社会学会了如何以更有效的措施应对这种疾病诊断,treatments,和预防策略, transforming AIDS from a lethal condition to achronic disease.
但是，有艾滋病毒/艾滋病和库维德 - 19岁之间的惊人相似之处that show the dire consequences disinformation can have on both patients and society as a whole.
否认存在病毒或大流行
有些人deny theCOVID-19的存在. There areabundant claims在社交媒体上，导致COVID-19的病毒从未被隔离，或者没有充分表征。其他人则不对COVID-19的存在提出质疑，而是ignore the severe consequences of infection.
通常，这些群体也倾向于拒绝细菌理论，声称传染病不是由病毒和细菌等病原体引起的。相反，他们promote the idea病原体不会引起疾病，而是这种病原体的结果。
Likewise, some denied the role of the HIV virus in AIDS infection. AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg was one person who disseminated this misinformation, which had been被整个科学界的驳斥. But his erroneous claim still reached the then president of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who banned the use of lifesaving antiretrovirals in public hospitals. This decision resulted in thedeaths of over 330,000 people from HIV/AIDSbetween 2000 and 2005.
Mbeki’s decision was considered so damaging that scientists and physicians worldwide signed the德班宣言, reiterating that HIV indeed causes AIDS and urging Mbeki to reconsider his decision. While the government did扭转禁令在强烈的国际政治压力之后，造成了损害。
Gain of function claims
功能实验的增益涉及操纵病原体以了解导致其引起疾病能力的原因。同时，这样的实验可以赋予病原体新的能力，例如使病毒对人类更可传播或更危险。阴谋理论家拥有提出要求that the COVID-19 virus resulted from alterations to a bat version of the virus that gave it the ability to replicate in human cells.
但是这些主张忽略了几个关于COVID-19病毒的关键事实，包括蝙蝠的所有冠状病毒都可以感染人类而无需额外适应。增加了共vid-19的可传播性的突变发生在人们开始循环后，导致了更具感染性的变体。
HIV also sawconspiracy theoriesclaiming that it was created in a lab for genocide. But research has shown that HIV also naturally evolved from an animals. African nonhuman primates are natural hosts to a vast group of viruses collectively called猿猴免疫缺陷病毒（SIV）. Despite their high rates of SIV infection in the wild, these primate hosts typically don’t experience symptoms or progress to AIDS. Throughout the evolutionary history of SIV,跳到新的宿主物种involved naturally occurring genetic changes over the course of thousands of years.
奇迹治疗
在公共卫生危机期间，研究人员和卫生官员正在实时学习疾病。尽管期望失误，但公众可以将这些视为犹豫，无能或失败。
As researchers looked for possible COVID-19 treatments, others were offering their own unproven drugs.多种疗法对于包括伊维菌素和羟氯喹，包括19.经过测试和废弃. But not before large amounts of time, effort, and money were spent on disproving claims that these were supposed miracle treatments.同样，艾滋病毒, frustration and anxiety from a continued lack of available treatments amid rising deaths led to fraudulent cures, with price tags of tens of thousands of dollars.
Even though treatment delays and changing guidelines are a natural process of learning about a new diseases as it unfolds, they can open the door to disinformation and generate不信任医生即使他们照顾感染的患者。
Preventing misinfodemics
下一个大流行不是一个问题，而是何时何地发生。与设计发现新兴病毒的方法一样重要，这是制定策略来解决将跟随它们的错误。最近Monkeypox爆发has already seen similar spread of mis- and disinformation about its source and spread.
As authorGabriel Garcia Marquez曾经说过：“谎言比怀疑更舒适，比爱更有用，比真理更持久。”反对错误信息是困难的，因为有除了无知之外for why someone believes in a falsehood. In those cases, presenting the facts may not be enough and may sometimes even result in someone doubling down on a false belief. But focusing on urgent scientific and medical needs to the exclusion of rapidly addressing misinformation can derail pandemic control. Strategies that take misinformation into account can help other pandemic control measures be more successful.
Cristian Apetrei is a professor of immunology, infectious diseases and microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences.
