Disinformation virus

The first victim in a war is the truth, said the manuals of information and international relations, when society lived mediated and therefore, although we had doubts about it, we were freer and better informed than now. What are we citizens doing between this very moment when there are 3 000 people infected with the coronavirus and the imminent moment when, according to Angela Merkel, 70% of Germans are going to be infected or, as some even more alarming information points out, 90% of the population is going to be affected by the disease. How many more museums can be closed, how many more football matches can be cancelled or to what extent the stock markets, which today have suffered a 14-point bump in Madrid, can fall.  

The time of truthful information, of policy agreements and the unity of international action has come to this weakened world where it seemed to us that we should demonstrate and vindicate ourselves in search of a common identity, which was so much of a priority yesterday and is so secondary today, in the face of the certain fact that we are people, that we suffer and that we need each other globally and humanly in an indisputable way. This is a time of extreme awareness of the reality that there are no national or local policies to correct the effect of a global pandemic such as the current one, which is decimating groups at risk, now defined by common conditions of defencelessness and unhealthiness that affect us all equally in an open and exposed world, and unfortunately also infected by the flow of insolvent and uncoordinated messages that we have been receiving. 

We must be absolutely sure that now is the time to put the brakes on the coronavirus by scrupulously following the instructions given by reliable health organisations and the professionals who are best qualified to deal with the crisis, and to combat with the same energy the virus of disinformation that is plaguing us, based on the commitment not to share unverified messages and to maintain calm and unity around the measures that governments and rationality impose. Although they may seem excessive or disproportionate to us. A mature and active society is strengthened by the conviction that flawed and useless messages do nothing but prolong uncertainty and panic among citizens and groups at risk. 

The current crisis is first and foremost a matter of emergency in the preservation of public health. Secondly, it is an international security crisis that threatens the economy, coexistence and well-being and must therefore be combated globally and with the involvement of states, governments, businesses and non-governmental actors. And thirdly, it is a systemic crisis of the model of rivalry between powers that has once again brought to the table the urgent need to build solid global governance in the face of the disintegrating tendencies of the liberal order, which is incapable of responding to emergencies of this magnitude.