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.*
SHE’S ALIVE
Image source: News Break NG
Elisa Granato, one of the first recipients of a trial vaccine for COVID-19 at the University of Oxford, has been the subject of false reports that she had died shortly after receiving the vaccine last week, Full Fact and Reuters have found.
However, Dr Granato (she’s a scientist herself) tweeted at the weekend that she was “doing fine” while the university stated in response to a Reuters’ query which confirmed that she was “alive and well”. The UK Department of Health and Social Care also tweeted that the news was “completely untrue”.
Dr Granato is one of the 800 participants who will either receive the trial vaccine or a control vaccine as part of the study.
ANTI-VAXXERS ON THE WARPATH AGAIN
Image source: Facebook
The Facebook post, which was shared in the US, Canada and Australia, offered advice on “how to legally decline a vaccine” but has been debunked by fact-checkers at AFP and Lead Stories.
The post suggests people should ask whether a vaccine (and presumably any future COVID-19 vaccine) contains “MRC-5” and whether it this could lead to an “iatrogenic reaction”. If the doctor administering the vaccine answers in the affirmative, as their Hippocratic Oath compels them, then a person apparently has the right to decline. “This is how we can legally (and respectfully) decline their offered mandated services and there is absolutely NOTHING they can do about it!”
But AFP found that while there were ways to refuse a vaccine legally in either the US, Canada or Australia, they were not those listed. For example, some Australian states mandate vaccinations for children enrolling in childcare or school, however, the vaccination itself is not compulsory and people maintain the right to choose whether to receive a vaccination.
SCAMMED
In Australia, digital scammers are using the coronavirus pandemic to con them into buying goods, sharing personal information and installing malicious software on their computers. This may well be the case in other countries too.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says that since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, it has received more than 1000 reports of bogus coronavirus-related schemes by scammers impersonating banks, retail stores, and the Tax Office, while the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has warned of scams involving fake Post emails.
In one case study detailed by the centre, a US-registered cyber attacker managed to send text messages to Australian phones looking as if to have come from official ‘myGov’ sources. The link in the message led to a website hosting a banking Trojan known to target Android phones to steal personal financial information.
FROM AMERICA
Image source: YouTube: Fox News
Comparisons between the coronavirus and various causes of death have been rife around the world with commentators, politicians and CEOs pushing for economies to reopen and for a return to business-as-usual.
One such comparison was made by TV’s “Dr Phil” — real name Phil McGraw —claiming during a Fox News interview that 45,000 Americans die every year in road accidents, 480,000 from smoking and 360,000 in swimming pools. The first two numbers were correct but, in reality, only 3,709 drowned in 2017, including those people who drowned in natural bodies of water and baths, not just swimming pools. An overstatement US by almost 10 times the actual figure, as PolitiFact found.
However, these apples-and-oranges comparisons are beside the point according to Arthur Caplan, the founding head of the division of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine.
“The issue isn’t how many people die of car crashes or swimming pool accidents or strokes or whatever. The question is whether they all happen at once and overwhelm the healthcare system.”
Given the massive amount of attention already given to Mr Trump ponderings whether disinfectant could be injected into the body to kill off the virus, or whether “very powerful” light could be a potential treatment, I will refrain from a detailed debunking of his suggestions here.
Things that don’t cure and/or prevent COVID-19**
#18: A few drops of hydrogen peroxide in the ear canal “This does not sound plausible. Liquids won’t penetrate the eardrum. In fact, it seals off the middle ear and prevents that from happening. Some drugs can be absorbed through the skin, but hydrogen peroxide is not one of them.” Dr Mark Prince, quoted by Lead Stories
*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.
