Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.
Daily Debunk
Rumors have spread across social media that U.S. authorities are planning to impose martial law in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Associated Press News
Social Media Disinfo
Circulating on social media: A video accompanied by a false claim that it shows a U.S. soldier spreading COVID-19 by wiping his saliva on a subway train handrail in the Chinese city of Wuhan in October 2019.
Verdict: False
Read the full story: "Video shows US soldier wiping saliva on train in Wuhan?" -- Agence France-Presse Fact Check
Factual Reads on Coronavirus
Mapping the COVID-19 outbreak
Does Everyone Over 60 Need to Take the Same Coronavirus Precautions?
Are precautions of the sort the CDC has endorsed really necessary, even in areas where the new coronavirus doesn’t yet appear to be circulating widely? What about disease-free adults in their 60s and 70s?
-- Kaiser Health News, March 24
Can’t Get Tested? Maybe You’re in the Wrong Country.
Scientists say the chasm between the testing haves and have-nots reflects politics, public health strategies and, in some cases, blunders.
-- New York Times, March 20
Coronavirus Death Rate in Wuhan Lower Than Initial Estimates, New Study Finds.
"The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine, found that the death rate among people who had symptoms was 1.4% in Wuhan, China, as of Feb. 29. That rate is lower than previous estimates of mortality rates for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus, in Wuhan and China overall."
-- Wall Street Journal, March 19
Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) — United States, February 12–March 16, 2020
This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged ≥85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged ≤19 years.
-- CDC, March 18
The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections
Reliable Coronavirus Information
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Federation of American Scientists
Johns Hopkins University & Medicine