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Coronavirus Global Travel Map and Misinformation Propagation

This time, it is misinformation and not disinformation.

An old quote that I have tattooed on my brain is, "It is not good enough to communicate to be understood, you must also communicate so as not to be misunderstood." The latter part of this quote is explained via example in this news story, Coronavirus: How a misleading map went global.

If you read the story, you will see how something like this could happen as people "innocently make assumptions" when combining two different information streams. It illustrates to all of us how we need to be careful in our own assumptions. The above instance is one that I could easily have been sucked into as a blogger and assisted in spreading incorrect information. 

Be careful out there! 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.