A group of 300 Indian scientists is fighting the Covid-19 fake news machinery

As the coronavirus has spread across India, crossing 5,000 recorded cases, and accounting for over 160 deaths, so have the rumours and fake news around it, ranging from conspiracy theories about China to nationalist theories about India. “We have been working on broad issues on the origin, spread and cure for the disease, based on the kind of news we have been seeing doing the rounds,” said Aniket Sule, a science communicator with the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai, who is a part of the hoax busting team. The hoax busting team is just one of a bunch of groups organised under the voluntary, pan-India effort: Indian Scientists’ Response to Covid-19 (ISRC).