There is a lot of information about COVID-19 out in the world today, and it is not always easy to know which information is real, what sources to believe, or how to best reduce the individual risk of contracting or spreading the virus based on these messages.
Sources that are generally known to be trustworthy, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might change their stance on a topic as new information becomes available and this can cause confusion. People we are told we should trust, such as medical providers or government officials, might share their personal opinion about something, and this may or may not be based in fact. Those who are close to us might share lots of memes that have conflicting messages. One way to make sense of this all is to practice thinking critically about -and asking questions of- information we are presented with through social media, newspapers, websites, or radio. This practice is called Media Literacy.
