AFP Fact Check Busting coronavirus myths

AFP Fact Check
 Busting coronavirus myths

SEVENTY ONE MYTHS BUSTED AND COUNTING

  (UPDATED REGULARLY)

  
A man wearing a protective facemask walks in a shopping mall in Shanghai on February 7, 2020. (AFP / Noel Celis)

Busting coronavirus myths

Published on Wednesday 19 February 2020 At 03:45Updated on Thursday 20 February 2020 At 01:47

Rumors, myths and misinformation about the novel coronavirus have spread as quickly as the virus itself. AFP Factcheck has been debunking disinformation as it emerges along with new cases across the world.

Here is a list of our 71 fact-checks in English so far, starting with the most recent:(Updated 20 February 2020)

71. This video has circulated online since at least March 2019 – months before the novel coronavirus outbreak


A video of a rainbow forming in the wake of a truck spraying moisture over a street has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Twitter and YouTube alongside a claim that the footage shows a truck disinfecting a street in China in an effort to contain the novel coronavirus. This claim is false; the video, which shows a truck spraying in China's Sichuan province for dust control purposes, has circulated online since at least March 2019, months before the viral outbreak.
20 February 2020

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70. This video was filmed before the novel coronavirus outbreak


A video shared hundreds of times on social media purports to show people running from a Chinese man who collapsed in Mauritania. The claim is false; the footage was shared online months before the start of the novel coronavirus epidemic.
20 February 2020

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69. Sri Lankan health experts stress there is no evidence that cannabis boosts immunity against the novel coronavirus

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 01, 2018 Marijuana plants grow under artificial light at the Green Pearl Organics dispensary on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in California, at the Green Pearl Organics marijuana dispensary in Desert Hot Springs, California. (AFP / Robyn Beck)

A YouTube video of a doctor discussing the health benefits of cannabis has been viewed thousands of times among Sri Lankan Facebook users alongside a claim that cannabis can boost a person's immunity to the novel coronavirus. The claim is misleading; medical experts have emphasised there is no evidence to suggest that cannabis improves immunity against the virus and have urged the public to follow official government health guidelines.
20 February 2020