Adam said
"Dr. Roussin at today's media briefing spoke to a rumour of concern that has been circulating on social media that has stated that there have been tests declared as positive before they are processed. Roussin assured that there is no truth to the rumour, describing it as nonsense.
Just to add myself, I’ve noticed on local social media not only that exact irresponsible rumour, but others spreading completely false information undermining the severity of the virus, undermining how it is inundating our medical system (Roussin said today over 200 in hospital, over 40 in ICU with COVID) and the serious threat it poses if spread continues at the current rate.
I’ve also noticed recently an encouraging amount of pushback to those rumours from fact-oriented folks who should be commended for ensuring that we get and base opinion and response on facts from reputable sources. I hope operators of local social media pages are able to themselves make a better commitment to ensuring that comments on their pages are at the very least seeing factual correction if they're clearly out of line (my response is to outright delete when someone is spreading a conspiracy theory/falsity on the virus).
If the comment is on Facebook, please consider making use of their "Report" feature to alert them of comments that spread false info (don't make the mistake of assuming that someone else has already reported it). The more this can be addressed, the less time our medical professionals have to spend dispelling rumours and the more on communicating information relating to the ongoing response to the virus!
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To further what you said Adam, it's also helpful to apply a bit of logic if you hear something alarming or questionable instead of accepting it at face value.
In the example Dr. Roussin cited about the labs, the rumour supposedly states that it came from "a registered nurse who works in the lab".
But registered nurses don't work in labs. Ergo, the information in the supposed "fact" is suspect from the get-go, especially because it's entire credibility is centered around a nurse employed by a lab.
If you hear or read something really incredulous, sometimes it's best to wait for *credible* media to do it's job. If you're really concerned, you can even send a tip to the media and they'll investigate. They have contacts you and I don't, and they'll get to the truth.
A good recent example is the story a few weeks ago from a whistleblower paramedic about Maples care home. It was so horrific I initially doubted it's authenticity. It was initially denied by Revera and the WRHA. But in the end, the media persisted and the details were confirmed.
The media has been raked over the coals in the past few days for reporting on the apparent discrepency between what Dr. Roussin suggested would be an order on Tuesday, and the different orders that came out on Thursday. It's been suggested that it's irresponsible for them to point it out, but it just shows that the media can and is looking in all the nooks and crannies and looking under all the rocks. We can trust them to keep pressing the issue if there's truly something there.