This article discusses how analysts are tracking false rumors about COVID-19 in hopes of curbing their spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called the COVID-19 pandemic an infodemic: “An over-abundance of information — some accurate and some not — rendering it difficult to find trustworthy sources of information and reliable guidance.”

The abundance of misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 have led many researchers to study the sources and spread of false information to identify where it comes from, how it grows and, hopefully how to elevate facts over falsehood. By analyzing millions of messages of social media, these researchers hope is to come up with effective strategies to ‘flatten the curve’ of the infodemic, so that bad information can’t spread as far and as fast.