![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/coronavirus-public-domain-image-499-1-e1587630237676.jpg\")
<\/h6>\n<\/h6>\nThe 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, but now appear only once a week.*<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Palmer has launched legal action against the West Australian Government’s border closure. (AAP: Jono Searle)<\/em><\/p>\n Remember Trump wannabe, mining magnate and former federal MP\u00a0Clive Palmer from<\/span> COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #3<\/a> and <\/span>COVID-19 Fact and Fiction #9<\/a>? This millionaire with political ambitions shares many characteristics with the American president, one of which is working very hard at his personal advancement at the cost of others.<\/span><\/p>\n In May, Mr Palmer was denied entry to the state<\/a> after the McGowan Government shut Western Australia’s borders the previous month to all but those deemed essential travellers. He had wanted to come to WA for a series of business and political meetings but WA police commissioner Chris Dawson did not grant him an exemption to enter the state.<\/p>\n Mr Palmer then lodged a writ against the decision in the High Court, claiming closing the WA border was an unconstitutional “act of stupidity”. \u00a0As his case against WA\u2019s coronavirus border closures headed<\/a> to the Federal Court this week, Mr Palmer took to social media<\/a> to attack WA Premier Mark McGowan.<\/p>\n “Mark ‘The Menace’\u00a0McGowan knows the mortality rate for West Australians hasn’t increased because of COVID-19 yet he continues to mislead the people of WA for political grandstanding,”\u00a0Mr Palmer, who is currently facing fraud charges<\/a> over his 2013 election campaign<\/a>, said. “There are other highly contagious viruses, for example Hepatitis B, which result in thousands of deaths every year. COVID-19 has claimed very few lives in WA, yet has led to unprecedented border closures and devastation to the economy.”<\/p>\n However, the comparison of COVID-19 to hepatitis B is not valid.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Palmer did not respond to a request for comment before publication.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Popstar Madonna has been censured by Instagram<\/a> after sharing a video about a coronavirus conspiracy theory to her 15 million followers. The singer claimed In her post that a vaccine for Covid-19 had already been found but was being hidden to “let the rich get richer”.<\/p>\n Instagram blurred out the video with a caption saying: “False Information” and directed users to a page debunking the claims in the video, noting there is no coronavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n The video in question showed a group called America’s Frontline Doctors speaking outside the US Supreme Court building at an event organised by Tea Party Patriots Action.<\/p>\n In the clip, Dr Stella Immanuel, a doctor from Houston, said she had successfully treated 350 coronavirus patients “and counting” with hydroxychloroquine.<\/p>\n The video was later deleted from Madonna’s Instagram page, but not before fans protested at her decision to share the post.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By the time Madonna posted the video on Instagram of a group of doctors claiming during a press conference in Washington that hydroxychloroquine, zinc and a drug known as Zithromax can cure COVID-19, it had gone viral, with US President Donald Trump retweeting it<\/a> multiple times.<\/p>\n Fact Check has found that the video has been shared dozens of times in Australian Facebook groups popular with conspiracy theorists, despite attempts by social media platforms to remove the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to PolitiFact<\/a>, the cure claims made by one doctor in the clip, Stella Immanuel, are false, and there is no known cure for COVID-19. “In spite of Immanuel\u2019s anecdotal evidence, hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with other drugs is not a proven treatment (or cure) for COVID-19,”\u00a0the fact-checkers concluded.\u00a0“While some studies have found that the drug could help alleviate symptoms associated with COVID-19, the research is not conclusive.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, The Washington Post found<\/a> that Dr Immanuel was no stranger to making outlandish declarations, once claiming that gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis, infertility, miscarriages and STIs are caused by “sex with demons that takes place in dreams” and are ‘evil deposits from the spirit husband’.<\/p>\n In short, the lady is a quack and yet is someone Trump calls \u2018impressive\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n #37: Steroids used in asthma inhalers <\/p>\n *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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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":[3814,3913,3963,3947,3946,3831],"class_list":["post-40576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-australia","tag-covid-19","tag-debunked","tag-fact-checking","tag-fake-news","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\/40576","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=40576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCLIVE PALMER\u2019S COMPARES COVID-19 WITH HEPATITIS B<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Clive_Palmer_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThis must sound terribly familiar to PP readers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
MADONNA’S INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT FLAGGED FOR SPREADING MISINFORMATION<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Madonna.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFROM WASHINGTON, D.C.<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Trump_loco.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThings that don\u2019t cure and\/or prevent COVID-19<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\n<\/strong>“There is no evidence on benefits or harms of inhaled steroids in COVID-19.”<\/em> \u2013 European Respiratory Journal<\/a><\/p>\n
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