Just over a year into the pandemic, there are few signs that we can soon use ‘COVID-19’ in the past tense.In this very long present moment, the infodemic that the pandemic brought with it is thriving, a year after Thailand reported the first COVID-19 case in Southeast Asia on 13 January 2020. Our three story picks in this first edition of ‘Beyond Borders’, a newsletter by the Reporting ASEAN series, check out various facets of our shared online spaces in the time of COVID-19.In the first story, the contact tracing of a viral hoax around alkaline foods shows how lies race across languages and cultures. In the second article, fact-checkers in Myanmar’s already challenging ‘noisy’ online world are playing catch-up with COVID-19 misinformation and its mutations. The third story shows how some Malaysians are doing their own news filtering of sorts.Take a look, too, at our infographics on Southeast Asians’ views on vaccination.Coming up soon: Insights from our survey on how Southeast Asians interact with news and misinformation around COVID-19. (Warm thanks to our series partner, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.)We’d love to have you subscribe to this newsletter, which brings you cross-border conversations from and about Southeast Asia. (No need to be on social media to get our updates). Do spread the word :)- Johanna Son |Editor & founder, Reporting ASEAN