Creating misinformation: how a headline in The BMJ about covid-19 spread virally.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has been accompanied by a viral spread of misinformation. Misinformation is easily created, as shown by a recent news story in The BMJ about a preprint, claiming that “a third of covid-19 patients admitted to UK hospitals die.”1 On Twitter, The BMJ added “putting the fatality rate on par with Ebola,” on the basis of a quote from one of the study’s authors. Unsurprisingly, this generated news …