{"id":23708,"date":"2020-04-14T23:16:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T06:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23708"},"modified":"2020-04-14T23:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T06:16:58","slug":"new-united-nations-strategy-aims-at-countering-viral-hatred-covid-19-conspiracy-theories-secretary-general-says-urging-world-to-unite-against-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23708","title":{"rendered":"New United Nations Strategy Aims at Countering Viral Hatred, COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories, Secretary-General Says, Urging World to Unite against Virus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/webtv.un.org\/watch\/ant%C3%B3nio-guterres-un-secretary-general-video-message-on-covid-19-and-misinformation\/6149346931001\/\">video message<\/a>\u00a0on COVID-19 and misinformation, in New York today:<\/p>\n<p>As the world fights the deadly COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War \u2014 we are also seeing another epidemic, a dangerous epidemic of misinformation.\u00a0 Around the world, people are scared. \u00a0They want to know what to do and where to turn for advice.<\/p>\n<p>This is a time for science and solidarity.\u00a0 Yet, the global \u201cmisinfo-demic\u201d is spreading.\u00a0 Harmful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating.\u00a0 Falsehoods are filling the airwaves.\u00a0 Wild conspiracy theories are infecting the Internet.\u00a0 Hatred is going viral, stigmatizing and vilifying people and groups.<\/p>\n<p>The world must unite against this disease, too.\u00a0 The vaccine is trust.\u00a0 First, trust in science.\u00a0 I salute the journalists and others fact checking the mountain of misleading stories and social media posts.\u00a0 Social media companies must do more to root out hate and harmful assertions about COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Second, trust in institutions \u2014 grounded in responsive, responsible, evidence-based governance and leadership.\u00a0 And trust in each other. \u00a0Mutual respect and upholding human rights must be our compass in navigating this crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Together, let\u2019s reject the lies and nonsense out there.\u00a0 Today, I am announcing a new United Nations communications response initiative to flood the Internet with facts and science while countering the growing scourge of misinformation, a poison that is putting even more lives at risk.<\/p>\n<p>With common cause for common sense and facts, we can defeat COVID-19 \u2014 and build a healthier, more equitable, just and resilient world.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following is the text of UN&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23709,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23708\/revisions\/23709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}