COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #26

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.*

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Apparently, not only America’s leaders are telling porkies about the success of their pandemic interventions and compare them to the model the Swedes adapted. Their antipodal counterparts do much the same except that where the American Presiden refers to the Swede’s Modus of Operandi as an example worth following, the Australian PM uses the Swedish numbers of victims and deaths caused by the pandemic to contrast it with how well Australia is doing.

 

IS SCOTT MORRISON CORRECT IN SAYING THE NUMBER OF COVID-19 DEATHS IN SWEDEN IS 20 TIMES THOSE IN AUSTRALIA?

Summer in Stockholm (Reuters: Stina Stjernkvist)

While Sweden often cited in debates over how best to balance health and economic considerations in response to the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison doesn’t think Australia should be following that country’s model of lax restrictions.

When he spoke on Australian Sky News this week, the Prime Minister said June quarter GDP showed Australia’s economy had experienced one of the “lowest falls of any developed country”.

“Our economy fell by 7 per cent. Devastating, absolutely devastating. But compared to the rest of the world, it was one of the lowest falls of any developed country,” Mr Morrison said.

“And when you look at our health results, both on the case incidents in Australia of COVID and the upsetting number of deaths that we’ve had compared to overseas, I mean, I know a lot of people on your program talk about Sweden. Well, Sweden has had a bigger fall in their economy and they’ve had almost 20 times the number of deaths.”

Indeed, Sweden’s economy tumbled 8.3 per cent in the June quarter, compared with Australia’s drop of 7 per cent. However, Mr Morrison’s claim that Sweden has had almost 20 times the number of deaths is wide of the mark.

According to data compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University, Australia had recorded 859 COVID-19 deaths (as of September 23), while Sweden had suffered 5,870 deaths. While Sweden’s death count is much higher than Australia’s, it is only seven times the number of deaths seen in Australia.

While Mr Morrison referred to the number of deaths when comparing the two nations, a comparison of the rate of deaths in both countries more closely aligns with his claim.

On those figures, Sweden’s rate of deaths per million people is 576.62 compared with Australia’s rate of 34.37. That means the Nordic nation has suffered a death rate more than 16 times that of Australia.

So Scott Morrison could have been closer to a less exaggerated truth, had he known the difference between the number of deaths and the rate of deaths.

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

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As the debate rages across the US about the worth of mandatory mask-wearing, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has come out strongly against a statement by the director of The Centers for Disease Control, Robert Redfield, who said that “face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have”.

Responding, Mr Meadows told reporters on September 17: “I will gladly wear my mask each and every day if that’s what makes the difference — and it doesn’t.”

“I think that even a Dr Redfield, Dr Fauci or anybody else would suggest that it is a mitigating effort, but it is not something that is designed to, to actually make sure that we don’t have the coronavirus spread.”

But fact-checkers at CNN’s Facts First found Mr Meadows’s claim that masks don’t make a difference to be false, and that both Dr Redfield and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had “touted the role of masks in preventing the spread of coronavirus”.

“Per the latest estimates from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), universal mask usage would save 135,000 lives by January 1,” the fact-checkers noted.

They added that the CDC director had also said in July: “If we all wore face coverings for the next four, six, eight, 12 weeks, across the nation, this virus transmission would stop.”

** Even zombies wear masks.

*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.