AM I GETTING ALL THIS INFORMATION ABOUT COVID-19 FROM CREDIBLE SOURCES ?

I never had interest in reading the news even though I had access to it through my phone and digital media. Last semester when we moved online during the Covid-19 outbreak I never checked the news so I was in a dark space concerning things going on around the world in general. I was in a personal bubble where there was no flow of information in or out. This led to me downplaying the seriousness of the virus and also being less knowledgeable about how fast the virus can spread and through what means it could spread. The main reason why I did not read anything about the pandemic on media is because all media sources were confusing and contradicting each other. As a result of the unpreparedness towards the pandemic, news sources were not sure of what to inform to the audience. On the other side I can say my parents knew more about corona cases in Kentucky than I knew as a UK student. I can kind of say my mum mostly told me all I needed to know about the rate of Covid-19 transmission in Kentucky. Although most of the information she told me was true some were unproven and mostly false. 

 My mum mostly got her information from Whatsapp (a messaging app) and CNN. The news from CNN was accurate but the same could not be said about the information from Whatsapp. There has been research carried out that showed most people tend to believe what they see on social media apps especially whatsapp which appeals to the older audience that is our parents. What mostly was spreading was a cure to coronavirus being homemade tea using green tea, lemons, tumeric, and ginger. My mum made me buy it but I didn't want to waste my money on that. She always doted on me to buy masks and gloves and wear them everywhere but I did not want to spend my money on them because in early March it was said that they were not effective. The worst of it all was that she didn't want me leaving my place but I persuaded her to let me go to Atlanta. Our agreement was that my dad would not get to know about it because he would have been very angry.

Currently I get information about the coronavirus rates on campus from the University of Kentucky Covid-19 data dashboard https://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-data-dashboard. This website provides the total number of people that have been tested and the positive cases on campus.