A lack of information can become misinformation

Abstract

On Twitter, there have been 113 million unique authors sharing everything from messages from news reports and commentary on COVID-19, to views on quarantining measures, speculation on the source of the virus and details of home-brewed cures. (Neither works.) As scientists rushed to investigate the new virus, conspiracy theories started to circulate about whether it was a naturally evolved new pathogen, one that inadvertently slipped out of a high-security laboratory in Wuhan, China, or one that was deliberately created for biowarfare - an idea deemed plausible by some in the current context of geopolitics and deepening tensions between the United States and China. On 30 December, Li Wenliang, a young ophthalmologist in Wuhan posted a message to colleagues that tried to call attention to a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like illness that was brewing in his hospital.