Impacts:
As the COVID-19 cases increased when the pandemic started, the myths
related to it grew uncontrollably. It included the misconceptions about
its spread, contraindications, and presumptions. Many people were
affected by this ambiguous communication. According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), many countries are involved not only in combating
coronavirus but also eradicating the misconception and false information
related to it (“UN Tackles ‘Infodemic’ of Misinformation and Cybercrime
in COVID-19 Crisis,” 2020). Due to these misconceptions, doctors’ jobs
became complicated and they faced problems while treating their
patients’ problems. Because of their lack of awareness and experience in
the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people hold some popular
misconceptions. This was a major factor in the COVID-19 pandemic’s
rising number of infected cases and fatalities.
In the northwest of Ethiopia, the Muslim participants were less likely
to have the misconceptions regarding COVID-19 than Orthodox Christians
as they minimized physical contact by performing their religious
practice at home while Christian went for spiritual services to church
ignoring the social distancing recommendations. They also believed that
this pandemic could only end by the help of God. Consequently, people
were ignoring the instructions of the health system and had firm belief
in the religious norms and principles (Mekonnen et al., 2020). Many
people fail to understand the importance of handwashing and wearing
masks because of their misconceptions about COVID-19 pandemic.
Eventually, this hinders the significance of prescribed measures and
treatment for SARS-CoV-2.