Jun 082020
 

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.*


INACCURATE LOCKDOWN INFORMATION

Image source: Facebook

A post of an unhappy Facebook user argues that the restrictions are overreach by claiming the unverified COVID-19 survival rate is 98.54 per cent, while others put the death rate at 0.1 per cent or even as low as 0.004 per cent.

Fact-checkers at PolitiFact found that although a 98.54 per cent survival rate wasn’t too far off the current figure for the US, the numbers were preliminary, likely to change and not as promising as it sounds. PolitiFact noted “Even a 1 per cent mortality rate (99 per cent survival rate) would mean that a disease is 10-times more lethal than the seasonal flu.”

Meanwhile, Full Fact looked into that same figure when it was shared in the UK when the true survival rate [in the US] or in the UK is not yet known.

In the US, Lead Stories looked into a claim that a “22 Trillion dollar economy” had been shut down to stop the spread of a virus with a 0.1 per cent death rate. However, this is roughly the death rate of the seasonal flu, while figures at the time showed about 5.8 per cent of confirmed coronavirus patients were dying.

Fact-checkers at Reuters, AAP, USA Today and AFP have all debunked similar claims.

QUEEN HASN’T ANNOUNCED CHILDREN TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HOMES

Image source: YouTube/Ricco Chie

The title of a YouTube video viewed more than 230,000 times suggests the World Health Organisation and Queen Elizabeth II are conspiring to remove children from their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

However, as Reuters points out, the title does not represent the footage it shows — neither the Queen nor the WHO have made any announcements regarding the evacuation of children from coronavirus-infected homes.

The video shows a WHO senior adviser saying that because people were quarantining at home to comply with lockdown laws, some vulnerable and sick people may be removed from homes so they could be isolated, but at no point mentions children.

Meanwhile, the Queen’s special broadcast amid the pandemic saw her reflecting on her first-ever broadcast in 1940, where she spoke of children being evacuated from cities during World War II. Referring to current lockdown measures, she noted that “once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones”.

WRONG QUOTE ATTRIBUTION

Image source: Facebook

“Once the herd accepts mandatory forcible vaccination, it’s game over,” the quote attributed to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, which has spread on Facebook, begins. “They will accept anything — forcible blood or organ donation — for the ‘greater good’.”

While the image has been circulating since at least early 2019, i.e. before the start of the pandemic, it has gained traction in recent months despite the ongoing efforts of fact-checkers around the world as scientists work to produce a COVID-19 vaccine and authorities urge people to get a flu shot so as not to put added strain on healthcare systems during the pandemic.

Fact-checkers from PolitiFact, Snopes and Africa Check last year found no evidence of Dr Kissinger having ever made such a claim. Since the coronavirus outbreak and re-appearance of Kissinger’s image, Reuters and Full Fact have also dismissed the claim, with representatives of Dr Kissinger telling Reuters that the quote is a “complete fabrication”.

 

5G BIOSHIELD

Image source: Twitter/@TheKenMunroShow

A video claiming that 5G radio waves “penetrate red blood in the lungs, making them easy prey for COVID-19 to enter and cause oxygen starvation” has been debunked by Lead Stories.

“Scientists have proven that 5G broadband can’t enter the body because skin protects the internal organs,” the fact-checkers said.” A study cited in the video as evidence for the danger was found to relate to Wi-Fi, rather than 5G, and had been widely criticised by scientists.

Meanwhile, scams used the fear these claims invoke; a device marketed as a protective measure against the supposed harm of 5G has been found by IT experts to be nothing more than a cheap USB drive with a sticker on it.

The “quantum holographic catalyzer technology for the balance and harmonisation of the harmful effects of imbalanced electric radiation” was being sold for as much as £300 ($550).

Despite the myth being busted time again, anti-5G activists continue to push disinformation, with hundreds protesting in Australia over the rollout of the technology, as well as other gripes including vaccination and the coronavirus lockdown (see COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #13).

 

ANTIVAXXERS STRIKE AGAIN

Image source: Facebook

A Facebook post claiming that no virus harmful to humans “has ever been proven to exist” and that “you can’t make a vaccine for something you can’t even prove exists” has quickly been discredited by Reuters. Its fact-checkers reviewed an article published in the American Society for Microbiology’s Journal of Virology which listed measles, poliomyelitis, rabies, yellow fever and smallpox as viruses which infect and are harmful to humans.

And Lynda Coughlin, a virologist at Mt Sinai Hospital, told Reuters: “The statement that “no virus harmful to humans has ever been proven to exist” is absolutely false. There are numerous examples of viruses which are known to cause disease in humans.”

 

COORDINATED TROLLING ABOUND

Fact-checkers, researchers and journalists all over the world are piecing together a picture of the networks, groups and individuals spreading coronavirus misinformation, including some who are pushing nationalistic disinformation.

An investigation by the BBC found that a network of more than 1,200 Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts was being used to praise Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and at the same time amplifying negative messages about those who are critical of China’s response.

“Although there is no definitive evidence that this network is linked to the Chinese government,” the BBC said, “it does display features similar to a state-backed information operation originating in China that Facebook and Twitter removed last year.”

In the US, NBC has reported that “troll farms” in North Macedonia and the Philippines have been responsible for coronavirus disinformation on Facebook. A large publisher of fake content, Natural News”, an anti-vaccination news site that frequently posts false coronavirus conspiracy theories about 5G towers and Bill Gates, is already banned from the social media platform after pushing the discredited “Plandemic” video. NBC added that the trolls also posted content from Natural News’ sister sites, NewsTarget and Brighteon.

Meanwhile, new research commissioned by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology and conducted by experts at the Queensland University of Technology has found that pro-Trump and QAnon conspiracy Twitter bots have been responsible for pushing the theory that COVID-19 is a Chinese bio-weapon.

“The coordinated efforts to promote the bioweapon conspiracy theory focused on 882 original tweets, which were retweeted 18,498 times and liked 31,783 times, creating an estimated 5 million impressions on Twitter users,” the researchers found.

“Similar research in January suggests there is a sustained, coordinated effort to promote this theory by pro-Trump, Republican and aligned networks of accounts.”

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Washington Post’s Fact-checker, having analysed thousands of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube posts and advertisements from US President Donald Trump, his campaign team and “a long list of surrogates”, has found that together they are creating an online “alternate reality” around the coronavirus.

“The data revealed the backbone of a five-point strategy to tell their version of the coronavirus story,” the fact-checkers determined. “Rewriting mistakes, highlighting achievements, deflecting blame, declaring victory and creating distraction.” (emphasis mine)

After downplaying the threat in the early stages of the virus outbreak, according to the Post, Mr Trump cum suis have pivoted to more self-promotional tactics in early March. By mid-April to early May, “[Mr] Trump and his team appeared to all but claim victory over the virus”, before moving on to discuss new topics online, including launching attacks on his political adversaries and presumptive election opponent Joe Biden.

“All presidential campaigns try to portray their candidate in the best possible light,” the fact-checkers concluded. “But what is notable about the Trump campaign is that its social media reach allows the campaign to rewrite even the most recent history.”

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

#29: Exposing yourself to the sun or temperatures higher than 25C
“You can catch COVID-19, no matter how sunny or hot the weather is. Countries with hot weather have reported cases of COVID-19.” –  World Health Organisation

 

*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.

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  7 Responses to “COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #14”

  1. What a great, interesting, detailed informational post! 
    Thank  you so much, not only for your facts, and details, but for getting this information out here.
    A post that I can check on the notes, and also to let others know. 

    Super job, and Thanks! again, Lona!!

  2. These 5G people – were they ALL absent from school on the day that the difference between quantity and quality was discussed?

    I suppose everyone has an “if I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist” switch, but adults [should] know when to tuen it on and off.  But then I suppose those who are denying the existence of any deady virus live on a flat earth too.

    Thanks again!

  3. Great job, Lona.  07

    Republicans are trying to make Trump* virus see more benign the more people it kills.

  4. Fact, Cons and anti-vaxxer (many whom otherwise often have liberal views?) have politicized a real dangerous Pandemic way too much…..dangerously

  5. How do these loons keep coming up w/ suck cockamamie conspiracy theories?

    That quote doesn’t sound a BIT like Kissinger!

  6. Concerning COVID-19 statistics … the “accurate” counts only concern cases that have been confirmed as having COVID-19 … and for a long time, only those reaching hospitals were being tested! Even health workers weren’t getting tests unless falling seriously ill. “Probable” cases were advised to self-isolate at home. Now, with more (& more reliable) tests being available, more people are able to be tested.
    But until relatively recently, the official statistics really only told us about numbers reaching health care services (mainly hospitals) who were seriously ill – so the proportion of those identified cases who died with COVID-19 was inevitably high.
    Let’s face it – we’ll probably never know exactly how many people have had COVID-19. At best – we’ll be given information about projected total numbers based on tests (not yet available) of presence of antibodies in samples of the wider populations. Such tests should become available sometime soon, but their “reliability” will be being questioned for some time after that! And without an accurate figure on what size population has been infected, we can’t really know what is the real mortality rate for COVID-19!
    Add to the elements that make such data misleading – for many patients, COVID-19 interacts with other health problems (“pre-existing conditions”) – so one shouldn’t say “died from COVID-19″, but “died with COVID-19″. The way that certifying doctors describe cause of death on death certificates sometimes over-accentuate COVID-19, but sometimes under-accentuate it. (In the UK, there was a NHS/government guidance note to doctors that encouraged them to put only one primary cause – heart, pneumonia or whatever … and mention COVID-19 in an additional information section, if the doctors felt it should be mentioned. This guidance note is available on line)
    The place where we’ll be better able to see the impact of COVID-19 on mortality is not on the COVID-19 data dashboards … it is on analysis of comparative death rates over a 5+ year period, based on the weekly reports. Marked excess numbers above the ‘norm’ indicated excess mortality from some cause … peaks in the weeks up to now in 2020 can reasonably be attributed to the impact of COVID-19, although this isn’t proven. Such comparative data already show up past epidemics impacting on death rates – especially ‘flu ones – in previous years. There are some such studies available for some countries (Europe Mortality Monitor EUROMOMO, for example, tracks certain countries: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality )
    I’m looking forward to seeing more ‘local’ mapping – because at national level, there’s a levelling out between hot spots & areas much less effected by the virus.
    Meanwhile – the statistics just give us some idea of changes … but far from a clear, reliable picture!

  7. Thanks Lona!  I hope someone is following the money and finding out who is profiting from the spurious gizmo claimed to protect from 5G–it has all the hallmarks of a scam like the fake medicines Jim Baker and others promoted.  I had read of other countries besides China spreading misinformation on social media, however they were not the same countries your source identifies.  Wondering whether some countries are figuring out how to mask origination IP to point the blame to other countries now…

    Evelyn is right about the data–the US data looks similar to earlier points in time because NY’s, which were most of the cases earlier, are substantially reduced and their numbers replaced by the virus spreading into lots more areas as TX, FL, GA, AZ are rising at record rates.  New UWA model for second wave has all those states hit hard–but for a reason I can’t guess at even, also predicts CO to join them.

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