Misinformation Narratives about COVID-19 and the Real Problems We Have to Worry About

What can we learn about all the misinformation about Covid-19? Are they mostly incorrect but uncorrelated health tips, or are there specific narratives behind those misinformation that seek to lay groundwork for the post-pandemic public discourse? Are they simply "fake news" spread around by well-meaning citizens, or perpetrated by state actors and organizations?... In this episode, Prof. Jacob Shapiro, Director of the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, discusses what his team and Microsoft have been learning about all the Covid-19 related fake news on the Internet. Meanwhile, in a recent op-ed titled "Coronavirus: Don't forget about the poor kids," Prof. Shapiro addresses some of the most urgent education policy questions during the pandemic, the debates around fairness of digital learning, and how we need to focus on the real problems in this crisis and look ahead for groundbreaking policy solutions. We also touch on topics from bioterrorism (how unlikely it is to design Covid in a lab) to impacts of the economic shutdown on developing nations (how Pakistan's agricultural harvest will soon suffer). It is a conversation that spans multiple disciplines and dimensions, but all for the purpose of shedding light on some truly brilliant ideas that you probably didn't think of before! Jacob N. Shapiro is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, a multi-university consortium that compiles and analyzes micro-level data on politically motivated violence in countries around the world. His research covers conflict, economic development, and security policy. He is author of "The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations" and co-author of "Small Wars, Big Data: The Information Revolution in Modern Conflict." His research has been published in broad range of academic and policy journals as well as a number of edited volumes. He has conducted field research and large-scale policy evaluations in Afghanistan, Colombia, India, and Pakistan.