A FLOOD OF misinformation and disinformation followed Covid-19′s arrival to Ireland.

You likely saw a lot of this firsthand. Maybe it was the rumours of the Irish military being deployed to enforce lockdown, or a suggestion that drinking water would prevent you from catching Covid-19.

It has become a significant feature of public discourse on the crisis in recent weeks and months, but is it here to stay, or as we begin to live alongside the virus until a vaccine arrives, will it simply ebb away?

TheJournal.ie examined this in a webinar last week, organised in partnership with the European Parliament Office in Ireland.

Presenter Sinéad O’Carroll was joined by our own Deputy Editor, and the lead of TheJournal.ie‘s FactCheck project, Christine Bohan as well as FullFact’s Nicola Aitken, Per Enerud of the European External Action Service and MEP Billy Kelleher.

We’re releasing some of the discussion as this week’s episode of The Explainer – and you can watch the entire session in full here.

https://soundcloud.com/the-explainer-podcast/how-covid-19-brought-misinformation-to-ireland/s-ustMPE9OzPD

This episode was put together by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll, assistant producer and technical operator Nicky Ryan, and executive producer Christine Bohan. Design by Palash Somani.