COVID -19 FRONTLINE STAFF HAS THE FACTUAL INFORMATION,
NOT THE SOCIAL MEDIA; MOH CHIEF
By: Joshua Lafoa’i
The most reliable, factual and accurate information on Samoa’s COVID19 response and defense, is from the people who are doing the test and are facing the disease at the frontline, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri reminded the Media at a Press Conference Tuesday.
This comes amidst a flurry of rumors on social media, falsely claiming COVID19 as the cause of death to a Seasonal Worker repatriated from New Zealand in mid-July but was proclaimed Dead on Arrival at the Leulumoega District Hospital after collapsing at home Saturday (15th August 2020).
Wearing a facemask while addressing the media, it did not hide his stern position discounting the spread of false reports on social media site, without the official confirmation from the Ministry of Health or the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) which are disseminated by the Government Press Secretariat as mandated by the State Orders of Emergency which are still in effect.
“The most reliable place to get that information is here at the Ministry of Health. We are doing the tests, we are the ones with the accurate information,” he added.
“We have our website, and keep in mind, this isn’t a disease that Samoa is facing alone, the whole world is facing this pandemic,” he added.
He labelled the deceitful social media posts by individuals as irresponsible.
“Very irresponsible. Especially in a matter of life and death,” continued the Medical Chief Executive.
“We don’t want Samoa to panic, especially with how successful we’ve been keeping the COVID19 virus at bay.
“We can’t afford to have the country in an unnecessary panic,” he reiterated and reminded the media of their ethical duty to report factual, balanced and accurately and to verify the social media rhetoric prior to going public.
On that same page, Leausa also calls on the country to trust the MoH and NEOC as the official source of factual information.
Reassuring the media that defensive and preventative strategies to protect Samoa have been executed effectively as provided by the COVID19 Strategy framework, the achievements by the NEOC and MoH’s is comprehensive and proactive Government is not complacent.
“These false social media posts are a challenge and the Government’s legal arm are investigating.
“That’s the general idea, and we would need a lawyer to interpret how we can approach bringing in these individuals responsible,” he said.
“We have policies specifically for these types of issues with the disaster management plan, but this is a disease and we’ve never had this happen before, so it’s something worth looking into,” he said.
“We’ve encountered these types of false writings on social media before. We traced the first time around and found the culprit. These little things are very risky that will cause a panic,” he added noting that in one case, a taxi driver was the culprit responsible for posting lies that confirmed COVID cases were secretly isolated at Tiavi.
