CovidGyan offers short videos, posters, FAQs.
From herbs under Ayush, consuming garlic, spraying cow dung water around homes to hot weather, all of them have been among the numerous unverified but fast spreading misinformation surrounding COVID-19 in the past one month.
To relay and communicate accurate scientific information in regional languages about the ongoing pandemic, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and a few other national institutions have launched CovidGyan, a website that offers short videos, pictorial info-graphics, posters, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), myth busters and research-oriented articles on COVID-19.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Tata Memorial Centre, LifeScience Cluster, IndiaBiosciene and Vigyan Prasar have teamed up in this multi-lingual communication exercise.
Presently, information about coronavirus has been made available in English along with twelve Indian languages covering Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
Rajesh Gopakumar, director, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, said the idea of the website is to create, curate and communicate scientifically all credible and authentic COVID-19 related content.
Scientists at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have pooled their knowledge and expertise for this cause. At the time of COVID-19, it is important to utilise our scientific understanding of the biological world. This can be used to provide a holistic perspective on the situation…,” said Satyajit Mayor, director, NCBS.
Similarly, a team of scientists, engineers and journalists came together on Saturday to bust myths around COVID-19.