THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Covid-19 fear-mongers are using social media platforms to tarnish the image of people. The latest victim is Ushakumari, the teacher of Agasthya single teacher school of Kunnathumala in Amboori on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram district. Many memes featuring her and her family are now doing rounds in Whatsapp groups and facebook pages asserting that she tested positive for Covid-19, while some went to the extent of stating that the teacher is currently under treatment at medical college hospital.
Rumour mills went on overdrive after an Idukki native, who had visited Ushakumari and her school on February 29 when she was on an indefinite hunger strike against the delay in payment of salary, was tested positive for Covid-19. If the disease does not do it, the harassment is doing all the damage, said Ushakumari. “As soon as I learnt about the Idukki local leader contracting the virus, I reported to the health officer at PHC who asked us to stay inside home and be alert.
I had seen the patient again at the assembly on March 10. I lost my piece of mind ever since I started receiving frantic calls from the parents of my students who rang up in panic after hearing wild stories about my ‘disease’,” she said. Ushakumari says that some of the posts and messages questioned her character. “Apart from a few local leaders, no one in authority, including the local body heads, have called us. Our food stock is exhausting and we don’t know what we will do.” The teacher is planning to approach cyber cell against social media abuses against her