CoronaCheck: International Fact-Checking Day

Today marks International Fact-Checking Day, so RMIT ABC Fact Check looks at a couple of rumours which won't go away—that China (or another party) created and released the coronavirus and that petrol pumps are "super spreaders" of the disease.

Claim 1: China released the virus

One pervasive coronavirus conspiracy theory suggests the virus was “created” in order to bring down economies and achieve world domination. In most cases, the theories suggest China is behind the purposeful spread of the virus, which is sometimes referred to as a bioweapon.

Readers have pointed to one such theory, spread on Facebook, which claims, among other things:

“China’s vision is to control the World economy by buying up stocks now from countries facing the brink of severe ECONOMIC COLLAPSE.”

Conservative lobby group Advance Australia have also published an article detailing a theory that the virus may have “escaped from” a military laboratory in Wuhan.

There’s currently no evidence to suggest the coronavirus originated anywhere other than in nature.

Fact checkers at USA Today looked to a recent report from the Scripps Research Institute which concluded that the coronavirus “mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.”

And in a statement published in the medical journal The Lancet, public health scientists from across the globe said they had also decided “overwhelmingly … that this coronavirus originated in wildlife”.

Meanwhile, PolitFact found no evidence to support a claim that COVID-19 was created in a lab, adding that “scientists who have isolated the genetic makeup of the 2019 coronavirus say its likely source is bats”.

Source: Facebook

Claim 2: asthma sufferers receive a rescue pack

In potentially distressing news for asthma sufferers, a claim that Australians with pre-existing respiratory conditions are entitled to a “rescue pack” from their GP is a viral piece of misinformation originally spread in the UK, according to AAP Fact Check.

A Department of Health spokesperson told AAP: “Patients cannot receive a ‘rescue pack’ from their GP, unless previously prescribed.”

The Lung Foundation of Australia also addressed the claims on its website:

“This scheme is not available in Australia and people living with asthma or COPD unfortunately cannot receive a pack from a pharmacy, GP or hospital at this point.”

Reuters debunked the same claim when it spread throughout the UK.

Image source: Facebook

Claim 3: coronavirus survives on surfaces for up to 17 days

Headlines declaring that studies of the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship showed that the coronavirus could survive on surfaces up to 17 days were misleading, according to fact checkers.

PolitiFact found that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had detected traces of the virus 17 days after cruise ship passengers had vacated their cabins, these were parts of viral RNA and not the live virus.

Dr Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University, told PolitiFact:

“A piece of viral RNA is not the same thing as a live infectious virus. In order for a virus to be infectious, it has to have intact membrane, spike protein and the whole intact genome (there are close to 30,000 bases of genetic code in the viral genome)."

Image source: World Maritime News

Claim 4: petrol pumps are "super spreaders"

We’ve had a fair number of emails asking about petrol pumps and whether they are “super spreaders”. These emails appear to be the result of messages shared on Facebook and Whatsapp claiming the pumps are responsible for coronavirus being spread widely.

The ABC looked into the claims earlier this week and found no public health authorities in Australia had issued specific warnings about petrol pumps.

A spokesperson for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Queensland, which has been cited in some posts and messages as a source of the petrol pumps claim, told the ABC the text message was a “complete fake”.

However, health authorities continue to advise that people should regularly and thoroughly wash their hands after touching any public surface.

AFP Fact Check also debunked the claim, while Snopes and USA Today looked at similar claims in the US.

Image source: ABC News

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Story: Ellen McCutchan

Art, Design and Culture

02 April 2020

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02 April 2020

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CoronaCheck: International Fact-Checking Day