Many messages about Corona spread are doing the rounds on the internet and is spreading like wild fire. SMS-based campaigns include wrong medical advice, veggie market shut downs and false narratives about the disease. Falsehood diffused significantly farther and more deeper than true information.
Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that such viral messages are not true. With Covid-19 cases rising in India, social media is flooded with hoax messages and misguidances. Let’s look at a few of them.
Did they really unleash lions?
The messages include “500 lions unleashed in Russia to combat Corona,” which is completely false and the lion pic is found to be from Johannesburg in 2016 during a shoot. This created fear mongering in few citizens. On the contrary, others expected similar treatment in India too.
Dead bodies lying on the ground?
Many of us might have come across a pic from a satellite in Italy that features innumerable dead bodies lying on the ground due to corona spread. The message claims that Corona has gripped Italy to an extent that there is no one to remove the corpses. This pic was taken in 2014 March, where people lay down in the pedestrian zone as part of an art project to pay a tribute to the lives lost in Nazi concentration camp.
Was the disease explained in the old school text?
Some information about corona virus from a 1072 pages zoology book written by a doctor named Ramesh Gupta is being circulated. WHO scientists disregarded such books. This is because the content mentions only about Corona virus, but we are witnessing a strain group of novel corona virus i.e covid-19.
What’s more, many forwarded messages claimed a discovery of new medicine, a spray of disinfectants from helicopters, few fake audios about misinformed death numbers etc have been flooding in the whatsapp groups. It’s an act of gross irresponsibility by the people for creating unnecessary havoc. A small cross check before forwarding or just ignoring them would be more appropriate.