COVID-19 and Scientific Literacy

Sandro  Serpa; Carlos Miguel  Ferreira; Maria José  Sá; Ana Isabel  Santos

doi:10.36941/jesr-2021-0024

Authors

Sandro Serpa University of the Azores, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of Sociology; Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc; Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence – NICA – UAc, Portugal
Carlos Miguel Ferreira Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA; Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies, Portugal
Maria José Sá CIPES – Centre for Research for Higher Education Policies, Portugal
Ana Isabel Santos University of the Azores, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Department of Sociology; Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence – NICA – UAc, Portugal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36941/jesr-2021-0024

Keywords:

COVID-19, SARS-COV-2, infodemic, scientific literacy, fake news, pseudoscience, social media, public health

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is, currently, the focus of all personal and collective actions at the social, cultural, economic, political and religious levels, among other dimensions of human life. This Letter to the Editor focuses on the overwhelming existence of fake news directly related to COVID-19, which permeate social networks and even the media, where journalists should act as gatekeepers and not fake-keepers. The methodology used in the collection and selection of data consisted of bibliographic research, in international databases, of publications on the topic under study and their content analysis. The results allow concluding that there is a need to promote scientific literacy in the general population but especially among journalists themselves.

Received: 30 November 2020 / Accepted: 8 January 2021 / Published: 5 March 2021