COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #7

The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.

For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*

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THOSE ANTI-VAXXERS AGAIN

Australia’s professional Rugby’s preparations to get back to business was somewhat hampered by the refusal of two Queensland NRL players refusing to have a flu shot, mandated by the Queensland Government, for which they were stood down.

In response to the mandate, Shanelle Cartwright, the wife of one of the players, took to Instagram to say the edict had entered “scary territory”. “Especially considering the flu shot has been proven to increase the incidence of corona viruses by 36%,” she posted on Instagram.

However, fact-checkers at factcheck.org and Lead Stories, as well as scientists at Health Feedback, have found there to be no evidence that the flu jab increases a person’s risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19. The “question of whether the flu vaccine causes an increased risk of coronavirus infection requires more scientific studies to answer” (Health Feedback).

As Health Feedback found, the claim seems to rely on a January 2020 study which showed individuals who received the flu vaccine had a higher chance of contracting the seasonal coronaviruses that lead to the common cold. But these viruses are not the same as the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. And the study itself states that “vaccinated personnel did not have significant odds of respiratory illnesses”.

A second study was also used to support the claim but looked only at children. It suggested an increased risk of non-influenza viruses among kids who were vaccinated but it doesn’t mention an increased risk for seasonal coronavirus infection, according to Sheena Sullivan, an associate professor at Melbourne’s Doherty Institute.

Update: Both players are now allowed to play again; one player because he took the jab – as two other protesters did before him – the other because he showed an allergic reaction to a previous flu jab.

 

MY MASK IS KILLING ME

Image source: Facebook

Recently face-mask wearers may have been alarmed by a Facebook post or news article claiming that face masks could cause hypercapnia or hypoxia if worn for too long.

One viral post presents the apparent symptoms of hypercapnia, which is a form of respiratory failure involving a build-up of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, and states “it can be caused by rebreathing your own exhaled CO2 by wearing a mask continually”.

Reuters found this claim to be partly false, citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as saying that while CO2 could build up in a face mask over time, it would likely be tolerable and result in a headache, rather than the more severe symptoms of hypercapnia shown in the Facebook post.

Meanwhile, fact-checkers at Snopes have debunked a Nigerian newspaper column by “Dr Dennis A Castro B” which claimed the prolonged use of face masks could lead to hypoxia with symptoms of discomfort and the “loss of reflexes and conscious thought”.

“Ultimately, the impact of a mask on its wearer depends on the wearer’s health, any pre-existing respiratory illnesses, the type of mask, and the length of time the person wears it,” Snopes found. “In most instances, the effects of prolonged cloth mask usage are small.”

 

COVID APP

Image source: Facebook

Australia, like many other countries around the world, has developed a telephone app to trace COVID-19 infection. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that while he wants 40 per cent of Australians to download the government’s COVIDSafe phone app he will not make it compulsory.

But a Facebook post shared more than 34,000 times claims that while the Federal Government may not make downloading the app mandatory, private businesses could pressure individuals to install the app on their phone, on post giving examples such as a supermarket refusing entry if an individual hasn’t got the app on their phone.

The post points to a privacy impact assessment carried out by a law firm on behalf of the government which did acknowledge concerns that individuals could in some circumstances be pressured to download the app.

But fact-checkers at AAP found that those concerns were directly addressed by the Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) (Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) (Emergency Requirements—Public Health Contact Information) Determination 2020, which prohibits a person from requiring another person to download the app. It also prohibits someone from refusing a person entry to premises or from refusing to enter into an employment contract, if they haven’t downloaded the app.

Not complying with the Biosecurity determination may be a criminal offence, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

While Australia has this safeguard built-in with the Biosecurity determination, other countries seeking to implement similar apps may have other safeguards in place.

 

COVID PATENT

Image source: Facebook

Fact-checkers at Reuters have debunked a claim, made in a video viewed more than 2.6 million times, that patents for the novel coronavirus have existed since 2006 and were “perfected” in November 2019.

However, the two patents, presented as “proof” that pharmaceutical companies have known about and concealed the novel coronavirus for years, are for SARS, which is caused by SARS-CoV-1, rather than COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2.

The fact-checkers also note “[Its] application for the patent was neither hidden nor part of a conspiracy as it was for a different virus strain entirely.”

 

DOCTOR ON THE LOOSE

Image source: Facebook

Dr Buttar, a healthcare professional who keeps himself occupied by spreading misinformation, is featured in the item above about the existence of apparent patents for the novel coronavirus, but he’s also been fact-checked for a claim he made regarding flu vaccines.

“The studies clearly show that if you’ve had a flu shot you’re going to test positive for COVID-19,” Dr Buttar said in an interview posted to Facebook.

Fact-checkers at Reuters and AFP have found that claim to be incorrect. As one US expert, John Sanders, of Wake Forest Baptist Health, told AFP Fact Check: “I’m happy to say this is unsubstantiated rubbish.”

It turned out that of the studies cited by Dr Buttar as “proof” of his claim was conducted on cats in 1984 — 35 years before COVID-19 was identified and became a pandemic. The second study cited by Dr Buttar was published seven years before the outbreak of COVID-19.

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

Jimmy Kimmel has “apologised” on Twitter after wrongly suggesting US Vice-President Mike Pence had offered to carry empty boxes to the door of a healthcare centre as part of a delivery of personal protective equipment.

A clip aired by Late night television host Kimmel on May 7 appeared to show Mr Pence suggesting he carry empty boxes “for the camera” after he had helped carry a couple of full boxes.

“Mike Pence pretending to carry a big box of PPEs into a hospital is the perfect metaphor for who he is and what he’s doing: a big box of nothing, delivering another box of nothing,” Kimmel said during the program.

But as fact-checkers at the Washington Post, Snopes, Lead Stories, USA Today and PolitiFact found, the clip had been edited. It showed that Mr Pence suggested he could carry the empty boxes “for the camera” after carrying in some full ones but the door of the van closed and Pence didn’t carry any of the empty boxes left in the van.

The fact checks prompted Kimmel to delete the clip from Twitter and issue an apology of sorts. “It would appear that [Mr Pence] was joking about carrying empty boxes for a staged publicity stunt,” Kimmel tweeted. “The full video reveals that he was carrying full boxes for a staged publicity stunt. My apologies. I know how dearly this administration values truth.”

The picture in Kimmel’s Tweet shows a van with a large number of apparently empty boxes left after the full ones were taken out. So this filming of Pence, without a face-mask, delivering PPE material was certainly designed as a publicity stunt based on a few full boxes instead of a whole van filled with material.

 

Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19

#23: Drinking sugarless black tea at dawn

“Tea cannot protect one from infection with COVID-19.” – Dr Moses Masika, a virologist at the University of Nairobi, as quoted by Africa Check

 

*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.