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Coronavirus: The Infodemic - July 7


Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a vaccination center at the StoneX Stadium, home of the rugby club Saracens, amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in North London, Britain June 21, 2021. Alberto Pezzali/Pool via REUTERS
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a vaccination center at the StoneX Stadium, home of the rugby club Saracens, amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in North London, Britain June 21, 2021. Alberto Pezzali/Pool via REUTERS

Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.

Daily Debunk

Claim: A report by Public Health England, an executive agency of the U.K. Department of Health, revealed that 62% of England’s recent COVID-19 deaths are among people who’ve been vaccinated.

Verdict: Missing context

Read the full story at: Reuters

Social Media Disinfo

Screenshot
Screenshot

Circulating on social media: Claim that a Malaysian minister said Muslims and non-Muslims would be given different brands of COVID-19 vaccines.

Verdict: Missing context

Read the full story at: Agence France-Presse

Factual Reads on Coronavirus

Rural India sinks deeper into debt as COVID-19 wipes out work
The coronavirus and a lockdown aimed at stopping it last year saw millions of people thrown out of jobs in cities and towns and forced back to their villages, and ever higher levels of debt.
-- Reuters, July 6

Implications of the second wave of COVID-19 in India
Understanding why the second wave has been more dangerous than the first could help to identify the potential areas of diagnostics to target with future control strategies.
-- The Lancet, June 30

How COVID-19 Could Lead to a Golden Age of Innovation
A comparison of the U.S. response to World War II and COVID-19 shows where we’ve gone wrong—and how to adjust course.
-- The Atlantic, June 28

Claim that Chinese team hid early SARS-CoV-2 sequences to stymie origin hunt sparks furor
The unreviewed paper, by evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, asserts that a team of Chinese researchers sampled viruses from some of the earliest COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, posted the viral sequences to a widely used U.S. database, and then a few months later had the genetic information removed to “obscure their existence.”
-- Science, June 23

UK scientist with links to Wuhan lab 'recuses himself' from inquiry into Covid origins
Dr Peter Daszak has left investigation into coronavirus emergence after concerns raised over links with Chinese laboratory.
-- Telegraph, June 22

New Coronavirus Variants Are Urgently Being Tracked Around the World
Genomic sequencing efforts are limited in developing countries, but scientists are mobilizing to help.
-- Scientific American, June 21

Former CDC director Redfield explains why he believes COVID-19 emerged from lab, WHO 'compromised'
Redfield argued COVID-19's efficient human-to-human spread contradicted behavior of other deadly coronaviruses with similar profiles.
-- Fox News, June 15

A Top Virologist in China, at Center of a Pandemic Storm, Speaks Out
The virologist, Shi Zhengli, said in a rare interview that speculation about her lab in Wuhan was baseless. But China’s habitual secrecy makes her claims hard to validate.
-- New York Times (via Todayonline.com), June 14

Why India’s Second COVID Surge Is So Much Worse Than the First
Large gatherings and much more lenient restrictions have allowed the virus to spread at devastating levels.
-- Scientific American, June 9

The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak
The Covid-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.
-- Wall Street Journal (via BizNews), June 6

We may never know where the virus came from. But evidence still suggests nature.
Labs like the one in Wuhan are essential to preparing for future pandemics.
-- Washington Post, June 4

The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections

HealthCheck

COVID19 Infodemics Observatory

Agence France Presse

Snopes

BuzzFeed

Factcheck.org

Associated Press

Washington Post

TruthOrFiction

Mapping COVID-19 Casualties

Reliable Coronavirus Information

World Health Organization

U.S. Centers for Disease Control

Federation of American Scientists

Emergency Physicians

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine​

Pan American Health Organization

Google COVID‑19 Information & Resources

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