Times Of Swaziland: PEOPLE HAVE RIGHT TO BALANCED INFO PEOPLE HAVE RIGHT TO BALANCED INFO ================================================================================ Editor on 01/10/2024 15:33:00 Sir, Recent reports that Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed, in his new book that he now believes the COVID-19 pandemic began with a leak from a Chinese laboratory, in a U-turn on previous comments, confirms suspicions that there was a lot of disinformation during the pandemic. The former Prime Minister is said to have made the bombshell claim that he now believes the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic originated from a leak at a Chinese laboratory. The former Conservative Party leader is said to have revealed in his upcoming book ‘Unleashed’, serialised by the Daily Mail, that he has discarded the once-dominant view that the virus was zoonotic - passed from animal to human - originating at a Wuhan wildlife market. I once read somewhere that the purpose of journalism is to give people the information they need to make better decisions about their lives and society. But, as everybody knows, this isn’t always the case. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard to ignore the censorship that surrounded the whole issue. From the very beginning of the outbreak, the doctor who first detected it and tried to alert the authorities was censored and imprisoned for doing so, eventually succumbing to the virus himself. Information This scramble to censor information undoubtedly allowed the virus to spread far beyond the borders of China by the time the Chinese authorities eventually decided to alert the international community about the outbreak. The world was plunged into a state of panic, fear and uncertainty, and vaccines were being heralded as our only hope. Suddenly all sorts of treatments were being proposed as possible solutions to the problem. But according to WHO, however, there is no evidence which shows that any of those treatments are effective against COVID-19, and in some countries, Ivermectin and Hydroxichloroquine were even removed from shelves of pharmacies despite being used to treat certain ailments for years. In fact, several doctors have claimed that both Ivermectin and Hydroxichloroquine, used in conjunction with other drugs, can even prevent hospitalisation in most COVID-19 patients. There were claims that some vaccines had severe side effects and to this day, some people still believe some of the illnesses they have developed. years after vaccination, are part of those side effects. Of course this information also seems to have been suppressed as WHO still claims ignorance on the origins of the virus to this day. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain; people have a right to balanced information to help them make informed decisions about their lives and society. LiSwati citizen