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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WORLD HEALTH ACCORDING TO ANTI-VAXXERS

A tweet, believed to have been posted by a user named VaccineTruths on May 3, contains a screenshot of a page from the website WorldHealth.net and alleges that a 2017 study showed that people who had received a flu vaccine would be the “first to die” in a global pandemic. The page on the website appears to have been deleted, but an archived version exists.

WorldHealth.net Internet has been included NewsGuard’s list of websites publishing false coronavirus information the site “violates basic standards of credibility and transparency”.

The text screenshot contains comes from an article headlined “BOMBSHELL: Flu Shots Scientifically Proven to Weaken Immune Response in Subsequent Years”, which cites a 2017 study conducted by Lisa Christian of the Ohio State Medical Centre. This study, however, looked into the effect of flu vaccinations on pregnant women and newborns and makes no mention of a person’s likelihood of dying in a pandemic.

According to RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow Kylie Quinn, who has researched vaccines, there was no evidence in the paper that a flu vaccine made people more susceptible to influenza.

In general, there was no evidence at all that people who had received flu shots would be the first to die in a pandemic. Dr Quinn said that she knew of no credible evidence to support other claims contained in the post, such as people who received a flu jab in 2008 “experienced a 250 per cent increase in influenza infections in subsequent years”.

 

THAT BILL GATES AGAIN

Image source: Snopes

More misinformation, or should we say disinformation, regarding Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, appeared as a photo, shared on social media, which showed a crop circle in the UK featuring the Microsoft logo.

“Amazing crop circle arrives overnight near Stonehenge, UK… Think they are trying to tell us something…? Microsoft Bill Gates made the Corona Virus?” one tweet featuring the photo reads.

But fact-checkers at Snopes were able to track down the original image of a 2004 crop circle altered to feature the Microsoft logo.

 

ANOTHER WRITER WRONGLY ATTRIBUTED

Image source: Facebook

A passage of text quoting an imaginary exchange between Satan and Jesus has been misattributed to the Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis, written supposedly during WWII, circa 1942.

The text quotes Satan as saying he will “shut down business, schools, places of worship, and sport events” and “cause economic turmoil”, while Jesus retorts: “I will bring together neighbours [and] restore the family unit.” Jesus continues: “I will help people slow down their lives and appreciate what really matters.”

Reuters found the real author to be a social media user named Heidi May, who told the fact-checkers she wrote the post on a day she was feeling overwhelmed in early March.

 

INTERNATIONAL CORONAVIRUS FACT-CHECKING

The International Fact-Checking Network’s database of coronavirus fact checks, created to combat misinformation about the virus, has already hit a milestone 5,000 fact checks.

The five most popular fact checks:

1. An investigation by Spanish Maldita.es into a WhatsApp message claiming that Pope Francis had instructed believers to put a white cloth on their doorsteps to protect them from the plague. They found no evidence of any such advice in the Pope’s public appearances and statements.
2. The same Spanish outlet also debunked several of the coronavirus-related claims made by disgraced virologist Judy Mikovits in the viral video “Plandemic”, as noted in COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #6
3. The Mexican fact-checking network Animal Politico looked into claims that COVID-19 is a thrombosis which should be treated with antibiotics. They found that while some Italian researchers found pulmonary thrombosis to be linked to the coronavirus, the virus was essentially a respiratory illness, and was not treatable with antibiotics.
4. In India, FactCrescendo debunked a video which purported to show bodies of coronavirus victims being thrown into the sea. The video actually showed the bodies of African migrants who had been trying to get to Europe washed ashore in Libya in 2014.
5. Bothes and India Today debunked the claim that Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was arrested for creating the coronavirus and selling it to China. Lieber was certainly arrested but in reality, charged with concealing a foreign conflict of interest from investigators according to a US Justice Department statement.

 

SAFE TO FLY

Reuters: Kham

In the US, with some states are relaxing lockdown rules and summer holidays approach, the CEO of Southwest Airlines claimed in an appearance on CBS that an aeroplane is “as safe as an environment as you’re going to find”.

Fact-checkers at PolitiFact noted that planes had air ventilation systems that circulate purified air and that airlines were taking substantial steps to protect travellers. Experts said flying would be relatively safe as long as everyone onboard wore masks and wiped down surfaces but also noted passengers would be unable to maintain distance from each other inside the aircraft.

There would still be risks despite protective measures being taken by the airlines. “Is an airplane potentially carrying an infectious passenger safer than your own home, where the only contact with a stranger you have is grabbing the takeout dinner order left on your porch by a delivery person?” PolitiFact posed. “Clearly not.”

 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

Barack Obama has criticised his successor, calling President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “an absolute chaotic disaster“.

The critique led Mr Trump to retweet a claim that “Barack Hussain Obama is the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor, which was [a] long tradition of decorum and decency.”

He tagged the post: “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!”

But PolitiFact found that, in fact, a long line of former presidents had offered their successors “improvement suggestions”.

Herbert Hoover, for example, railed against Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and liberalism “from the time he left office in 1933 until his death in the mid-1960s”. Historians contacted by PolitiFact also pointed out that Jimmy Carter’s policies were ridiculed by predecessor Gerald Ford.

“Carter carried on the tradition. In November 1982, he said President Ronald Reagan had undermined confidence in America’s global leadership,” PolitiFact noted.

 

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

#24: Palm oil

“No, palm oil will not stop the coronavirus.” – 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.

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.

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.*

---

SATIRE IN THE NAME OF FITZGERALD

Image source: Facebook

A letter attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald, supposedly written by the Great Gatsby author during the Spanish influenza pandemic, continues to be shared widely on Facebook despite being debunked.

The letter, purportedly sent by Fitzgerald to a friend in 1920 and including references to his wife Zelda and fellow writer Ernest Hemingway, is, in reality, a parody written by Nick Farriella for the satirical website McSweeney’s, according to fact-checkers at Reuters and Snopes.

Farriella tweeted on March 18 that his creation had been turned into “fake news” but continues to be shared, including as recently as April 29 on Facebook.

 

MOSQUITOES JOIN THE MYTHS

Image source: Twitter/Peter Kyle MP

Mosquitoes can indeed spread certain diseases such as malaria through their bite but fact-checkers at PolitiFact and Associated Press found there’s no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread by the insects.

A Tik Tok video suggesting the coronavirus could be caught from mosquitoes which had bitten someone infected with the virus had been viewed more than 1 million times.

The World Health Organisation has stated that to date “there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes”, and Joseph M. Conlon, a representative of the American Mosquito Control Association, told PolitiFact no coronavirus had shown the necessary replication inside mosquitoes or ticks for the virus to be passed from person to person via insect bites.

 

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

Image source: Twitter/Peter Kyle MP

Photos may not be what they seem. The team at Full Fact in the UK have put together a guide on what you should know about photos of overcrowded public places that suggest a lack of regard for social distancing rules which are distortions of reality through the use of telephoto lenses and different camera angles.

“It’s important to say that these images aren’t fake: they are authentic images, but choices the photographer makes can result in very different impressions of a scene,” Full Fact says.

In one example, a regular jogger in England explained in a Twitter thread how a photo of 40 people apparently crowded together along the Bournemouth foreshore actually showed an area half a kilometre in length.

In another example, British Labour MP Peter Kyle tweeted out the two images above.
“Same spot. Same moment. Same camera,” he announced. “Can the media please stop popping to our beautiful seafront and using zoom lenses to give the impression people are selfishly endangering others. Overwhelmingly they are not. Photos can lie just as words can.”

 

MISINFORMATION SUPERSPREADERS

from Darren McCaffrey, Euronews

With a worldwide increase in media consumption due to the pandemic the insidious danger of misinformation has also increased. The analytics firm NewsGuard found dozens of popular Facebook pages that are publishing, repeating and sharing false stories about the coronavirus across Europe. The offending pages each had more than 40,000 likes on Facebook and had a combined following of more than 13 million users; larger than the population of most European countries.

NewsGuard reports that the hoax social media pages have been targetting audiences in English, French, German and Italian to share myths that the novel coronavirus had been created in a lab, or engineered as a bioweapon, despite no evidence to support the theory. Some of the posts have had little or no supervision from Facebook, which is under intense pressure to monitor fake news during the pandemic.

Matthew Holroyd explores the phenomenon of “superspreaders” of false information.

 

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

#21: Eating papaya salad
“It’s a bogus claim. The most effective way to protect yourself from infection is to wash your hands regularly, wear facial masks, and keep social distance from 1-1.5 metres.”– Dr Thira Woratanarat, department of preventive and social medicine at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, quoted by AFP

 

*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.