As the world grapples with an unprecedented health crisis, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the information we share is accurate and fact-based. Fake news and misinformation seem to be spreading as fast and as far as the virus itself, infecting our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment.

For this reason, RMIT ABC Fact Check has launched CoronaCheck, an email newsletter in which we will bring you the latest in fact-checking from around the world in relation to the coronavirus.

You can read the latest edition below, and subscribe to have the next newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.

CoronaCheck #14

Many readers have asked us about comments supposedly made by Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo. We begin today’s edition by setting the record straight on Professor Honjo’s stance on the source of the novel coronavirus.

We’ve also turned our attention to Madagascar, where the country’s president has been spruiking a herbal tea, and to France, where protective gowns that disintegrated when used had apparently been imported from China.

No, Nobel Prize winner Tasuku Honjo did not say the coronavirus is ‘not natural’

Social media posts claiming that Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo said the novel coronavirus was “not natural” and “manufactured in China” are false, according to fact checkers at AAP, AFP and Snopes.

The posts quote Professor Honjo, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2018, as saying that the virus could not be natural, as it spreads in both hot and cold climates.

“I have done 40 years of research on animals and viruses. It is not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial,” the posts allege Professor Honjo said.

Fact checkers at AFP were unable to find any record of Professor Honjo making the attributed remarks, and the professor himself issued a statement saying he was “greatly saddened that my name and that of Kyoto University have been used to spread false accusations and misinformation”.

Madagascar’s president spruiks a herbal remedy

In Madagascar, the spread of coronavirus misinformation has not been confined to social media: even the country’s leader is spruiking an unproven herbal remedy.

According to the BBC, President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the herbal tea by claiming it had already cured two people in the country, prompting people to queue for their supply of the free beverage.

“This herbal tea gives results in seven days,” Mr Rajoelina said.

But the World Health Organisation told the BBC it did not recommend “self-medication with any medicines … as a prevention or cure for COVID-19”.

According to a report in the Bangkok Times, authored by AFP, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted: “There is no scientific evidence that any of these alternative remedies can prevent or cure the illness caused by COVID-19. In fact, some of them may not be safe to consume.”

Debunking an infographic on mask effectiveness

With advice on when and where to wear a face mask varying widely, efforts to curb confusion are being further hindered by the spread online of misinformation about protective face coverings.

One such example can be seen in a Facebook post, shared in a number of languages, purporting to show the effectiveness of face masks when worn by healthy and infected people, or a combination of both.

The infographic claims a healthy person wearing a mask has a 70 per cent chance of being infected with the coronavirus by a sick person not wearing a mask. When mask-wearing is reversed, the apparent “contagion probability” falls to 5 per cent. When both healthy and sick people are fitted with masks, the chance of the healthy person of being infected is supposedly just 1 per cent.

Fact checkers at Snopes and Reuters found that the information was mostly false, as there was no scientific consensus of the efficacy of face masks nor data to support the quoted percentages. It was also unclear whether the post referred to surgical masks, homemade masks or N95 respirator masks.

However, as reported by Snopes, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that masks provided a way of “strengthening the social distancing that we are already doing”.

Viral photo shows dog vaccine

Fact checkers at Full Fact and factcheck.org have debunked a post shared on Facebook that falsely suggests a vaccine exists for the novel coronavirus.

In the post, a caption accompanying the photo of a vaccine vial states: “Now this was 200 tell me why 19 years later they say there is no vaccine.”

However, the label on the vial clearly states “canine coronavirus vaccine”.

As is well known by now, coronaviruses are a family of viruses. The current outbreak relates to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

According to Full Fact, the vaccine shown in the photo is used to protect dogs from the canine coronavirus.

“Canine coronavirus doesn’t affect people, and is a gastrointestinal disease, not a respiratory one,” Full Fact explained.

Flimsy gowns not made in China

A video showing brand new medical gowns disintegrating in France has been shared with a misleading caption suggesting the faulty gear was made in China, AFP Fact Check has found.

One version of the video, shared on Twitter and retweeted more than 250 times, is captioned: “Protect our doctors & nurses by not buying medical supplies from bloody #China!”

But the hospital featured in the video told AFP that the gowns were not made in China. Rather, they were French-made gowns that had been damaged while in storage.

“Apparently, the boxes were stored in a humid place, which damaged the overcoats inside,” a spokesperson said.

From Washington, D.C.

US President Donald Trump’s recent claim that the US had done more testing for COVID-19 than “every country combined” has been rubished by fact checkers at factcheck.org.

When Mr Trump made the claim on April 28, the US had carried out almost 6.03 million tests for the disease, more than any other country but not more than all other countries combined.

According to factcheck.org, more than 25 million tests had been administered outside the US.

“So, [Mr] Trump’s claim is not even close to being accurate,” factcheck.org concluded.

Meanwhile, the top US official in charge of testing, Admiral Brett Giroir, said that conducting 5 million COVID-19 tests per day was not feasible with the current technology.

“There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day,” Time magazine reported the testing czar as saying.

In its 56-page “roadmap” for a return to normalcy, a Harvard University study had suggested the US would need to conduct at least 5 million tests a day by early June, and 20 million per day by late July, something Giroir claimed was “an Ivory Tower, unreasonable benchmark”.

Sites we recommend

• The Australian Government’s official page and app
• The Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE)
• Johns Hopkins University
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
• Our World In Data

Got a fact that needs checking? Tweet us @ABCFactCheck or send us an email at factcheck@rmit.edu.au

Loading…