COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #22

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, but now appear only once a week.*

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COULD VICTORIA’S PREMIER BE JAILED FOR PREVENTING THE USE OF HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE?

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews

As has been reported in edition # 20 that Victoria had seen a surge in new cases which only has worsened over the past weeks and now has forced its Labor Party Premier Daniel Andrews to have the capital Melbourne in full lockdown again and the rest of the state under close restrictions too after the previous measures didn’t show to have little effect on the ever-increasing number of infections.

The Premier now has come under attack by the Liberal opposition because of the failure of previous restrictions and imposing even stricter lockdown rules with strong detrimental effects on the Victorian economy.

Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly has suggested that Daniel Andrews could be jailed for blocking the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 during a Facebook posting spree that saw him promote the drug more than 30 times this week.

In a post that has since been edited (see posts above and below), Mr Kelly questioned whether the Premier could be jailed for up to 25 years for “continuing to ban hydroxychloroquine” under recently-introduced Victorian workplace laws, which include the crime of “workplace manslaughter”.

Image: Mr Kelly’s original Facebook post (supplied)

“With the current international evidence available, continuing to ban this drug is negligent, it falls below the standard of care that would be taken by a reasonable person — and creates a high risk or death,” Mr Kelly wrote, continuing with “Every officeholder in Victoria that continues to ban the use of Hydroxychloroquine, could be risking 25 years in jail under the state’s new laws” referring to the limitations the Therapeutic Goods Administration placed in March on the use of hydroxychloroquine and its recommendation against its use for treating COVID-19 outside of clinical trials.

The text of the post has since been updated to remove any reference to Mr Andrews, stating instead that “continuing to deny the right of medical professionals prescribing this drug to a patient” arguably constitutes conduct that in some states “has criminal penalties that carries [sic] severe penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment for individuals”.

“Given the limited evidence for effect against COVID-19, as well as the risk of significant adverse effects, the TGA strongly discourages the use of hydroxychloroquine outside of its current indications at this time other than in a clinical trial setting or in a controlled environment in the treatment of severely ill patients in hospital.”

Image: Mr Kelly’s edited Facebook post

Slater & Gordon industrial and employment principal lawyer Carita Kazakoff told Fact-check there was “zero chance” of Mr Andrews being charged with manslaughter as a result of any decision to ban or limit the use of hydroxychloroquine.

“Workplace manslaughter laws are designed to ensure that employers and organisations who exercise control over a workplace ensure the safety of those in that workplace,” she said in an email.
“While it’s conceivable that the Premier could be a ‘duty holder’ under the Act in relation to a workplace where he supervises or manages people, it is not relevant to the context Craig Kelly has described.”

In the meantime, the World Health Organisation and Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity have discontinued their trials of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment as evidence mounts that it is ineffective.

When questioned by reporters about Mr Kelly’s posts, (Liberal) Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not “get onto what people talk about on Facebook” and asked Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly to comment on the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.

“In terms of its use for this particular disease… it doesn’t work,” Professor Kelly said.

As was mentioned in edition #3, Trump wannabe and millionaire Clive Palmer had purchased 32,900,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine and made it known in several large newspaper advertisements that he’s donating them towards Australia’s fight against COVID-19. No pressure there.

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

In a sit-down interview with news website Axios, posted on Politics Plus in It Is What It Is!

US President Donald Trump was grilled by Australian journalist Jonathan Swan on his administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 150,000 Americans.

.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”@realdonaldtrump: “You can’t do that.”

Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39

— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020

Fact-checkers at PolitiFact have run the rule over the interview checking 22 claims made by the President. They concluded: “Trump’s comments contained a mix of half-truths, missing context and outright falsehoods.”

To begin with, PolitFact found to be misleading Mr Trump’s assertion that, even before the coronavirus outbreak, China had suffered its “worst year” in 67 years, given that 67 years ago the country was on the cusp of a famine which killed as many as 45 million people.

The fact-checkers also found Mr Trump’s claim that 12,000 people had attended his rally in Tulsa to be a doubling of the real count of 6,000.

And on coronavirus in the US, PolitiFact said it was “incorrect” for Mr Trump to say the US had a high case count because of a greater number of tests. What mattered, the fact-checkers said, was the proportion of tests returning a positive result.

“If more tests are being conducted and more of them are coming back positive, that means that the virus is spreading beyond just the increase in testing,” they said. “In June, the share of positive tests climbed. While it has levelled off and eased a bit, it is still more than three percentage points higher than in the spring.”

On COVID-19 deaths, of which the US has suffered the highest number in the world, the fact-checkers found Mr Trump was incorrect when claiming that fatalities were falling.

“On the day before the Trump interview [on July 28], the 7-day average death toll nationally had been climbing for weeks, according to the Covid Tracking Project. It stood at 1,004. A week before that, it had been about 800. A week before that, it had been about 700.”

 

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

#38: Eating rasam or curry
“There is no scientific evidence that rasam or curry protects from the virus.” – 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.