A community support fund has tried to connect with “Doctor Khoa” via Facebook to offer its sponsor of ventilators for the hospital where he was working. However, netizens also quickly discovered anomalies from the above story such as the true identity of “Doctor Khoa”, no caesarean section for any twin pregnancy in the city at that time, no arrangement for a pregnant woman with twins infected with COVID-19 in the same room as COVID-19 patients and no permission given to doctors to unplug one patient's ventilator and plug it into another patient.

After receiving information, Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities quickly intervened and verified the incident. At noon on August 8, the City Department of Health confirmed that this was fictitious information. It was absolutely not possible to remove the breathing tube of a patient to give it to another patient at any hospital in the city. Depending on the patient's vital signs, the doctors would have to hold a consultation and then decide whether or not to withdraw the breathing tube. The incident is still being investigated and clarified for handling in accordance with the law.

Also regarding to tragic stories related to the epidemic, a story of a person calling himself a shipper appeared on social networks on August 5. He described that he witnessed a person carry 27 urns of people who died due to COVID-19 and placed them in a plastic basket behind his vehicle for delivery in the blockade areas. This person said that half of the urns have been delivered in just under 2 km in Phu Trung Ward, Tan Phu District (Ho Chi Minh City).

In his story, the narrator also gave information that the deliverer met a child whose four relatives had died due to the pandemic and a neighbour had to sign for the child’s parents’ urns.

However, the authorities of the locality mentioned in the article confirmed that there was no family with such a case. There were no deaths in the ward in July and only three cases, including two due to COVID-19, reported in August.

Unfortunately, the “recounted” information, the authenticity of which was unverified, was immediately spread via internet, scaring many readers.

The above incidents showed that the problem of fake news is raging and growing more sophisticated and unpredictable. In addition to bad news with provocative and destructive contents, providers of fake news also made up touching and pitiful stories to the community's mercy.

However, behind stories that seem to praise beautiful actions and noble sacrifices or stories with emotional colours to arouse sympathy and sharing of the majority, the doubts and panic about the epidemic’s situation and efforts made by authorities at all levels in caring for people’s lives will be evoked, causing people to worry about an exhausted health system, thereby thinking that Vietnam’s anti-epidemic situation is “broken”.

In many cases, it is an extremely malicious trick to cause a social crisis. In fact, the current development of epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City and several southern provinces and cities continues to be complicated but remains under control. There is no shortage of medical equipment, so it is unnecessary to deprive patients’ lives. Frontline medical staff are making their best efforts to save patients and minimise the risks of death.

The above incident was a lesson of the alertness and vigilance against unverified information sources. It is possible that many people may be led by fake news due to their gullibility. Therefore, they then would be panic and lose their faiths in the authorities in epidemic prevention and control. However, along with the intervention of the authorities to promptly detect and harshly handle accounts that disseminate false information, the community should also raise their responsibilities in receiving and handling fake news.

If the problem of fake news is not prevented promptly, it will erode people's trust and hinder the current COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.