One of the latest in a series of twisted and bizarre theories about the Coronavirus is that it is some kind of biological weapon that is being employed to destroy Malta.

It’s not a joke. We’ve seen it among the many stupidities that have appeared on the social media ever since the outbreak of this new disease which is affecting so many and killing a few. These kind of foolish ideas and thoughts have abounded more now that Malta has registered its first cases.

We’ve said it several times. The social media is a tool to bring people together, restore old friendships and make new ones, and spread information at the push of a button. But, and this is a big but, it is also a weapon of misinformation and, apart from feeding on the narcissism of people who want to tell the whole world what they ate for lunch, where they went for a walk and what they did last night, it exposes all the stupidity of humankind.

News about the Coronavirus disease has dominated world news for the past weeks and Malta was no exception. Most of the panic that gripped all the corners of the earth was generated via the social media. When, less than 20 years ago, another new virus – Severe Acute Respiratory Virus, known as SARS – developed and spread very much in a similar way as Coronavirus is doing, there was no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets via which news could travel so quickly – and with it so many instances of fake information.

In those years – some would add the adjective “blessed” to describe them – news was obtained mostly from the traditional media which, in the great majority of instances, adopted a very cautious approach to the disease and stayed away from being alarmist in the way it presented its reports. This time, however, whereas the traditional media (again, in the great majority of cases) is restrained in the way it is dealing with the news related to the virus, the social media is offering a wider platform via which some people are using to scatter falsities.

Many do not even bother to see the source of the information and check whether it is reliable or otherwise; and simply share the “news” items. And so whereas, 20 years ago, their stupidity was confined to a bar, club or at a dinner table with friends and relatives, today it has a much wider audience – some of them gullible enough to believe anything that is thrown at them and spread the false information further to their own group of friends.

The traditional media has the added burden of having to sift through the inundation of information, much of it fake, before presenting reliable information to its viewers, listeners or readers.

The situation is extraordinary. Now that Malta has registered its first cases and neighbouring Italy is in complete lockdown – with the government finally waking up to the idea of suspending passenger travel to and from all of Italy – we are all feeling it more.

The best thing we can do in the circumstances is to abide by instructions given by the health authorities, stay safe and stop adding to the panic via fake information.