![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/coronavirus-public-domain-image-499-1-e1587630237676.jpg\")
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.<\/p>\n
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.*<\/span><\/p>\n Image source: Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>through RMIT ABC Fact Check<\/p>\n A video of an altercation over a repeat of a surplus purchase of tins of baby formula in a Melbourne Big W store that went viral is now being used to spread a claim that Chinese nationals have been banned from Australian supermarkets, according to AFP Fact Check. But in these times of fear for the coronavirus, the video is now being shared<\/a> alongside<\/a> false claims that “Chinese are banned in Australia[n] supermarkets”.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Woolworths told AFP they welcomed anyone wishing to shop at their stores while a Coles spokesperson said the claims were \u201cabsolutely untrue”.<\/p>\n Image source: Twitter through RMIT ABC Fact Check<\/p><\/div>\n Scientists are rushing to develop a coronavirus vaccine and may be on the brink of testing it on humans, so anti-vaccination campaigners have taken to social media to spread misinformation and fear.<\/p>\n One claim, that seven children died after being vaccinated against COVID-19 in Senegal, has been comprehensively debunked by at least six independent fact-checking organisations; PolitiFact<\/a>, Lead Stories<\/a>, Snopes<\/a>, Reuters<\/a>, factcheck.org<\/a> and AFP Fact Check<\/a> all found the claim, made in the voiceover of a video shared on Facebook, to be false. A spokeswoman for Senegal\u2019s health ministry also rejected the claim as “fake news”.<\/p>\n The video contains news footage of an incident in Senegal which never happened, in which two people were allegedly arrested for falsely claiming they were health ministry officials, there to vaccinate children. In reality, it was a man selling cosmetics door to door, arrested after joking that he had vaccines while wearing a health ministry T-shirt.<\/p>\n Anti-vaxxers are taking advantage of people who only follow news on Facebook and Twitter and who are oblivious to the fact that scientists are only on the verge of testing possible vaccines and that no one is being vaccinated at this point.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Image source: Facebook<\/a><\/em> through RMIT ABC Fact Check<\/p>\n A Facebook post suggested that hand sanitiser contains ethylene glycol, which is found in antifreeze and is toxic to humans and animals. But hand sanitizers sold in Australia<\/u><\/strong><\/span> contain 60 to 95 per cent alcohol in the form of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol and a small amount of some other chemicals. A hand sanitizer would only be dangerous to pets if they licked the hands of someone who had just applied the rub, something most animals would be averse to doing unless they like alcohol.<\/p>\n Researchers at Myth Detector<\/a> in Georgia have determined that the bulk of coronavirus misinformation and disinformation, such as stories that the virus was man-made in the US, that the EU had “abandoned” Italy, and that only authoritative countries like Russia and China could handle the outbreak, which is spreading throughout the country is political and being spread by “openly pro-Russian”\u00a0news websites.<\/p>\n Rumours have appeared online that the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson didn\u2019t have the disease he says he\u2019s now recovering from.<\/p>\n One post<\/a>, shared widely<\/a>, claims staff at the hospital where Mr Johnson was treated were forced to sign the “Official Secrets Act”. Two doctors apparently refused to do so and said they didn\u2019t believe the Prime Minister was actually ill. But that post was originally<\/a> written as satire, according to fact-checkers at Reuters<\/a>, who spoke to the author. Full Fact<\/a> also found the post to be based on satire.<\/p>\n But the truth doesn\u2019t seem to matter and the rumour that the PM faked his illness continues to spread on Twitter.<\/p>\n *<\/span>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.<\/p>\n **<\/span> I\u2019ve gathered all the \u201cthings\u201d from previous issues I could find, but #13, 15 and 16 seem to have disappeared from the internet. In future posts, I will only report on any new myths.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3913,3947,3946,3838,3831],"class_list":["post-39489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-covid-19","tag-fact-checking","tag-fake-news","tag-russia","tag-world","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRACISM<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/No-Chinese-887x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nANTI-VAXXERS ALREADY ON THE WARPATH<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Anti-vaxxers-866x1024.jpg\")
YOU CAN CUDDLE YOUR PETS<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pets-and-sanitizers-1024x673.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAND THEN THERE\u2019S RUSSIA<\/h6>\n
BRITISH CONSPIRACY THEORISTS<\/h6>\n
Things that don\u2019t cure and\/or prevent COVID-19**<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n