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Reuters
As the number of validated coronavirus cases throughout Africa passed the one million mark this week, we’ve looked into some of the commonly shared fake news about the pandemic on the continent.
Claim: Ghana’s president has actually backed a conspiracy theory video
Decision: False
A voice recording backing numerous false conspiracies about the coronavirus pandemic has been associated to the President of Ghana.
Ghana’s Information Minister has actually validated that the voice was not the president’s and said the claim was “certainly false”
The male who runs the channel states he changed the title of the video to “Africa Leader … Exposes Costs Gates Deadly Vaccine For Africa” after people in the remarks pointed out it inaccurately called the Ghanaian president.
Claim: Drinking alcohol can ward off coronavirus
Decision: This false claim was intended as satire, but has been widely shared in Africa.
A satirical video of a man’s response to the re-imposition of an alcohol sale ban in South Africa on a TV news channel has actually been viewed thousands of times on Facebook and is likewise distributing on WhatsApp.
The comic Thandokwakhe Mseleku published the video of his television look on Instagram and YouTube.
In the video, he says: “Sanitiser has got 70%alcohol, so if you are drinking alcohol, it resembles you are sterilizing your inside.”
Evaluating by a few of the remarks to the video, individuals plainly thought it was genuine.
The comedian later identified his videos as ‘parody’. We have asked Thandokwakhe Mseleku for a comment.
Consuming alcohol-based hand sanitiser is very dangerous and has actually led to deaths. It definitely doesn’t protect you from coronavirus
Claim: Eating high-alkaline foods can get rid of the infection
Verdict: False.
A deceptive poster declaring to use recommendations from within isolation hospitals on what to do to protect someone from coronavirus has been distributing on social networks in Africa.
It declares that the ‘level of acidity’ of the infection can be removed by consuming high-alkaline foods, and lists a range of fruits with their obvious pH levels.
According to Lee Mwiti, Chief Editor, Africa Examine, the spread of false information on WhatsApp is a specific difficulty for fact checkers.
Claim: A coronavirus vaccine trial in Africa has actually led to the death of two children
Verdict: False.
When 2 French physicians controversially suggested on French TV in April that early vaccine trials ought to be performed in Africa, their remarks triggered an uproar, including amongst some in the African diaspora.
The video was illustrated with what was claimed to be a local news report revealing unrest on the streets and interviews with sick children.
The claims in the video very first appeared in Might and were debunked at the time, however they have continued to circulate on Facebook and closed WhatsApp groups, and have been watched around 25,000 times on YouTube.
Lee Mwiti from Africa Examine says the most shared and long-lasting falsehoods are those that have tapped into people’s anxieties, vulnerabilities and “absence of control in a time of unmatched disturbance”.
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