Daniel Bennett on the Coronavirus Information “Vacuum” | Business Insider

Business Insider quotes CEGA affiliate Daniel Bennett on peer-to-peer information sharing amidst conflicting information about the coronavirus.

“An expert suggested people tend to turn to their peers for information and recommendations on an epidemic amid contradicting information from policymakers.

Daniel Bennett, an assistant professor of economics at University of Southern California, told Insider that outbreaks of novel viruses create a ‘vacuum’ of available information when people are looking for immediate answers.

‘In these outbreaks, like this but also like Ebola or swine flu, or these sort of things that don’t happen regularly, we don’t know about the spread or how infectious it is,’ Bennett said. ‘And so, when that happens, there’s this kind of vacuum where we don’t have enough information from official sources or objective scientific sources.’ “

Source: Coronavirus: People rely on peers for info amid contrasting reports, expert says – Business Insider