COVID-19: Unravelling the science in a crisis

ABSTRACT

According to Aisha Karim, a science journalist with South Africa-based Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, many journalists had little knowledge on how to unravel and communicate the science about the virus in an effective manner. According to the UN Secretary-General’s initiative on big data and artificial intelligence, Global Pulse, online Coronavirus information has been shared and viewed 270 billion times in the 47 WHO Africa region countries between February and November this year. Benjamin Gyampoh, a lecturer at Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, told participants that social media has played a key role as a science communication channel but what is shared is insufficient and not an adequate representation of COVID-19 research across Africa.