연세대학교 고등교육혁신원

“A hot bath can prevent COVID-19.”

“You can reuse a mask if it is microwaved.”

“Can I get infected by sharing food?”

“Should I have my windows closed to prevent infection?”

“What constitutes ‘close contact’ with a COVID-19 infectee?”

In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, misinformation, confused assumptions, and fake news are currently spreading rapidly online, causing fear and anxiety among the general public.

To address this global issue, a group of Yonsei students has teamed up to launch a COVID-19 myth-busting platform called CoronaQNA, aiming to combat widespread misconceptions of the virus and provide accurate, easy-to-understand information to increase public awareness. 

“Although we’re young students, we were convinced that there would be something that we could contribute,” said Hyun Ho Shin (entering class of ‘15, Medicine), a member of CoronaQNA. “We realized that the main problem was that people with no background knowledge in medicine or biology misunderstood the concise and hard-to-understand opinions of experts and government briefings.” 

Majoring in various departments such as medicine, nursing and biotechnology, CoronaQNA members all have one thing in common - a strong passion for contributing to impacting society through innovative problem-solving. 

CoronaQNA consists of members from two Yonsei student “social innovator” teams: ARMS, a health literacy advocate club that provides reliable information to help society make appropriate health decisions, and SaChoom, a social venture group that recently developed a non-recyclable syringe needle to prevent the spread of diseases through reused, contaminated syringes. Both affiliated with the Institute for Higher Education Innovation** at Yonsei University, the two teams have combined their strengths to identify and address the social issue of rising fear based on the spread of misinformation on COVID-19. 

The students may be young, but their take on CoronaQNA is nothing but professional. With a strict policy that the platform only provides accurate data from verified sources, the team selects reliable data from public health authorities (e.g., WHO, CDC, NHS) or the opinions of experts specializing in related medical fields that are backed with authorized evidence. They summarize the information in layman’s terms, using infographics and designing card news format content, and share them on the CoronaQNA website and social media channels to decrease the information gap between experts and the general public. 

“We do not directly answer the public’s questions, but we find the relevant references from authorized sources to help them understand the information,” explained Steven Chun (entering class of ‘14, Biotechnology & Industrial Engineering), another CoronaQNA member. 

https://www.yonsei.ac.kr/en_sc/yonsei_news.jsp?article_no=184318&mode=view&title=yonsei-students-team-up-as-covid-19-mythbusters