By Robert Egbe

How can lawyers spot fake COVID-19 information and keep healthy?

This and more was the focus at The University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University) Law Class of 1987 meeting on the Coronavirus pandemic.

The event with the theme ‘COVID-19 prevention and control – what to do and what not to do’, held virtually on July 26.

It featured the Clinical Director at St, Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, Dr. Ebun Bamgboye, who spoke on ‘COVID-19, Why is Africa different?’

The second speaker, Dr. Kuyinu Yetunde Abiola of the Department of Community Health & PHS, LASUCOM, considered ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: De-mystifying Rumours and Taking Charge of your Youth Health.’

Read Also: ‘How COVID-19 affected education’

Members of the Law Class of 1987 include Mr Caleb Arogundade, who moderated the event, Mr Sunny Awonuga and others who joined from virtually around the world.

Arogundade observed that “The essence of the zoom meeting is for knowledge sharing and education of our associates and families.”

The speakers advised lawyers “to check your source of information either from the World Health Organisation (WHO) or Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to avoid misinformation.

“Myths spread fear and irrational behaviour, for instance, the use of salt during Ebola pandemic.”

They identified several fake information on the virus, such as:

“5G is the cause of Covid 19, you cannot catch the disease in hot weather, if you can hold your breath for 10 seconds or more, you don’t have Covid-19, thermal scanner will detect COVID-19, etc.

They noted that all of the above were fake news and advised lawyers to be wary.